adjective
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everyday, ordinary, or banal
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relating to the world or worldly matters
Related Words
See earthly.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mundane
First recorded in 1425–75; from Latin mundānus, equivalent to mund(us) “world” + -ānus -ane; replacing late Middle English mondeyne, from Middle French mondain, from Latin, as above
Explanation
An ordinary, unexciting thing can be called mundane: "Superman hid his heroic feats by posing as his mundane alter ego, Clark Kent." Mundane, from the Latin word mundus, "world," originally referred to things on earth. Such things were supposed to be uninteresting when compared to the delights of Heaven; hence the word's present meaning. Writing about reality TV shows, a Newsweek writer opined, "In reality bizarro-world, the mundane is presented as the spectacular" — in other words, people's everyday routines are now televised as entertainment.
Vocabulary lists containing mundane
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 Top "SAT" Words
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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.
My husband and I burst out laughing – not at that scene, or the clerk’s impromptu theatrics, but at this injection of delight into an otherwise mundane errand.
From Salon • May 2, 2026
Its pain manifested itself in the most mundane places.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026
“Mythos was trained on fairly mundane capacity, and a fairly mundane amount of it. By an extraordinary company,” replied Huang.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 16, 2026
A lifestyle unburned by history and more connected to the mundane and the tangible.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026
Perhaps it was desperation because I felt so poorly, but I think the reason was more mundane: curiosity.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
Definitions 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.
