Banality

//bəˈnælɪti// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality of being banal. uncountable

    "The concept of the banality of evil came into prominence following the publication of Hannah Arendt's 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, which was based on the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem."

  2. 2
    a trite or obvious remark wordnet
  3. 3
    Something which is banal. countable
  4. 4
    A feudal right or obligation, especially the obligation for a peasant to grind grain at the lord's mill, or the profits accruing from such rights. countable, historical, rare, uncountable

    "The law of banality, one of the most oppressive products of feudalism, was revived for the advantage of the nobility."

Synonyms

All synonyms
bromidebanalisationbanalizationbanalnessbathosbathos

Example

More examples

"Is it mere coincidence that "banality", when anagrammed, reads "Ban Italy"?"

Etymology

From French banalité, from banal, equivalent to banal + -ity.

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