Humdrum

//ˈhʌmdɹʌm// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality of lacking variety or excitement. uncountable

    "I think it helped distract us from the dry, humdrum, and heat of the here and now."

  2. 2
    the quality of wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety wordnet
  3. 3
    A stupid fellow. countable, dated

    "So, after settling it that Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were complete country humdrums, the daughters hoydens, the sons awkward half-dandies, and the company altogether any thing but agreeable, she came to a conclusion she had done fifty times before, that the country was not like London."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Lacking variety or excitement; dull; boring.

    "In the valley there would have been feasting and celebration, and then dancing at the wedding, and afterwards the turmoil of a brief romance turning to humdrum married life, the cares of her house, the cares of children, anxiety, fret, illness, trouble, the day-by-day routine of growing old."

Adjective
  1. 1
    tediously repetitious or lacking in variety wordnet
  2. 2
    not challenging; dull and lacking excitement wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
monotonousmonotonymonotonyaridalliteratingalliteration

Example

More examples

"Many American office workers live an uninteresting, humdrum existence."

Etymology

Possible reduplication of hum, 1550s.

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