Banal

//bəˈnɑːl// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Common in a boring way, to the point of being predictable; containing nothing new or fresh.

    "banal clichés"

  2. 2
    Relating to a type of feudal jurisdiction or service. historical, uncommon

    "They arrived in 1732, and were distributed gratis to the more important banal mills."

Adjective
  1. 1
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
commonplacecornyeverydayhackneyedthreadbaretrite

Example

More examples

"Much of the riots' coverage was taken from the cell phones of passersby, saving local news outlets valuable film which they would later use for banal "human" "interest" "stories.""

Etymology

Borrowed from French banal (“held in common, relating to feudal service, by extension commonplace”), from Old French banel, related to Medieval Latin bannālis (“subject to feudal authority”), from Latin bannus (“jurisdiction”), both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to order, summon, forbid”). Equivalent to ban + -al. See also ban, abandon.

More for "banal"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.