ban
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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bans,
present (3rd person singular)
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banned,
past participle, past
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banning
present participle
noun
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the act of prohibiting by law; interdiction.
- Synonyms:
- taboo, interdict, proscription, prohibition
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informal denunciation or prohibition, as by public opinion.
society's ban on racial discrimination.
- Synonyms:
- taboo
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Law.
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a proclamation.
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a public condemnation.
-
-
Ecclesiastical. a formal condemnation; excommunication.
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a malediction; curse.
noun
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a public proclamation or edict.
-
Ecclesiastical. bans, banns.
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(in the feudal system)
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the summoning of the sovereign's vassals for military service.
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the body of vassals summoned.
-
noun
-
(formerly) the governor of Croatia and Slavonia.
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History/Historical. a provincial governor of the southern marches of Hungary.
noun
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bani
plural
verb
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(tr) to prohibit, esp officially, from action, display, entrance, sale, etc; forbid
to ban a book
to ban smoking
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(tr) (formerly in South Africa) to place (a person suspected of illegal political activity) under a government order restricting his movement and his contact with other people
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archaic to curse
noun
-
an official prohibition or interdiction
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law an official proclamation or public notice, esp of prohibition
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a public proclamation or edict, esp of outlawry
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archaic public censure or condemnation
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archaic a curse; imprecation
noun
noun
Usage
What does ban mean? To ban is to forbid or prohibit something or someone, as in Fatima banned her children from using screens after 9 pm so they wouldn’ stay up all night playing video games. A ban is a law or rule that prohibits, or bans, something, as in The winter parking ban starts on December 1. A ban can also be an informal prohibition, such as by public opinion. Example: We had to ban the use of power tools for school projects after an unfortunate incident in shop class.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bansimple
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banssimple
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have bannedperfect
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has bannedperfect
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am banningprogressive
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are banningprogressive
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is banningprogressive
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have been banningperfect progressive
-
has been banningperfect progressive
Past
-
bannedsimple
-
had bannedperfect
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was banningprogressive
-
were banningprogressive
-
had been banningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ban1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English bannen, Old English bannan “to summon, proclaim”; cognate with Old Norse banna to curse (probably influencing some senses of Middle English word), Old High German bannan; akin to Latin fārī “to speak,” Sanskrit bhanati “(he) speaks”
Origin of ban2
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English, ban, ban(n)e, iban “a lord's proclamation or edict or summons,” Old English (ge)ban(n) “proclamation, ordinance, summons to arms” (derivative of bannan ); influenced in some senses by Old French ban (Anglicized as ban ), from the same Germanic source; see ban 1
Origin of ban3
First recorded in 1605–15; from Serbo-Croatian bân, contracted from unattested bojan, bajan, said to be from a Turkic personal name, perhaps introduced into the Balkans by the Avars; compare Medieval Greek bo(e)ános “governor”
Origin of ban4
First recorded in 1960–65; from Romanian, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Serbo-Croatian bân “provincial governor”; see origin at ban 3
Explanation
The verb to ban means to forbid something from being or happening. The word can also be used as a noun. A school board might put a ban on all books that refer to Jefferson's mistress if they don't want anyone reading about her. If your parents are upset by how much time you spend online, they might ban computers in the house. But if you're smart, you can just use your phone or laptop at school. To ban something is to put a ban on it. Something with a ban on it is said to be banned. A ban can vary from your grandmother's ban on people wearing shoes in her house to a government's ban on printing certain stories in the newspaper.
Vocabulary lists containing ban
100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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"The Civil Rights Movement"
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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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.
See Examples For:
In 2023, the S&P reversed itself on the dual-class ban.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
"The study sets an upper limit, not a ban, on planets," Li said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026
Moreover, the Constitution does not ban foreign emoluments absolutely; it merely requires that Congress must consent to them.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2026
"China Airlines and EVA received a notice from the Pakistan authorities that they will lift the ban, but only temporarily... till the end of the winter," Chen said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
Among these was an absolute ban on “flying in airplanes of any description,” except with Groves’s explicit consent.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
By then—that would have been 1995—the Shorawi were defeated and long gone and Kabul belonged to Massoud, Rab- bani, and the Mujahedin.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
The king sent the bani of Bosnia and Croatia to help them, but the Venetian senate bought the rescuers off!
From The Shores of the Adriatic The Austrian Side, The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia by F. Hamilton (Frederick Hamilton) Jackson
For the period after the reign of Ashur bani apal, we have only the scantiest data.
From Assyrian Historiography by A. T. (Albert Ten Eyck) Olmstead
Our present copy is a tablet from the library of a later king, seemingly Ashur bani apal.
From Assyrian Historiography by A. T. (Albert Ten Eyck) Olmstead
In the true Bedouin spirit he devoted his talent largely to satire and attacked the bani Nahshal and the bani Fuqaim.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various
Hosepipe bans were announced for millions of customers and still remain in place.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
E-bike and scooter crashes regularly kill riders and pedestrians without lawmakers imposing similar bans, it said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
Other cities, including Grenoble, Rouen, Le Havre and Toulon, issued bans on protests in their city centres.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
The WHO generally opposes travel bans, arguing that Ebola’s spread is better contained through increased funding and heightened vigilance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
I knew such measures would come, but I had not expected to receive my bans in the remote town of Villiers.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Some nod to what’s happening in America, such as when Carrie discovers the school library and gravitates straight to books that have been banned from classrooms and community libraries across the country.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026
The previously undisclosed payments had come to light the previous August when the government banned Yorkshire Water and five other water companies from paying "unfair" bonuses to bosses.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
In his Tuesday ruling, Seabright declined to dismiss the indictments against defendants in the two cases that he banned Essayli from overseeing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
Authorities in Marseille had also banned protests but announced Friday that a union-organised demonstration would be allowed on an "exceptional basis".
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026
People convicted of ardent leadership in the Nazi Party were banned from public office.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
She supports legislation banning members of Congress from trading stocks, wants to enact term limits and portrays herself as a pragmatist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
Greece's parliament passed a law Friday banning children under 15 from social media, joining a growing number of countries imposing curbs on young people's use of the apps.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
A Los Angeles City Council panel in April proposed banning e-bikes from local trails.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
But banning Greek life punishes the innocent while making the guilty harder to catch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
The banning of cigarettes in restaurants and bars is a powerful social incentive.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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