banal
Americanadjective
adjective
Synonym Usage
See commonplace.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of banal
First recorded in 1745–55; from French, Old French: “pertaining to a ban”; equivalent to ban 2 + -al 1
Explanation
If something is boring and unoriginal, it's banal. Banal things are dull as dishwater. Ever notice how some TV shows, songs, and even phrases are boring and unoriginal? It's like you've seen or heard the same thing a million times. Anything that's unoriginal and dull is banal — a fancy word for things that bore you to tears. When you're writing, try not to be banal. Clichés and dull topics are banal. New ideas, fresh language, and unusual subject matter can keep your writing from being dreary and banal.
Vocabulary lists containing banal
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The Hunger Games
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Kyle Chayka, a journalist at The New Yorker focused on technology, says AI writing is now widely considered to be "generic, obsequious and banal".
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
The pursuit of fame for fame’s sake has become an almost banal pursuit in the attention economy.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
But it also makes the history in which he took such a big part look banal and inhuman: Your historic emergency is his media opportunity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Working with screenwriter Will Soodik, Parsons has gone back into that banal maze to find an uncannily mature story about loss and stagnation, about how our self-serving narratives barricade us from emotional growth.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
Disappointingly, it turned out to be some banal utterances about dying and cutting cloth.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
