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banal

ba·nal

UK/bəˈnɑːl/ US/ˈbeɪnəl/ uncommon

adjective

1.

obvious and dull

  • “trivial conversation”
  • “commonplace prose”
Synonyms
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2.

repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse

  • “bromidic sermons”
  • “his remarks were trite and commonplace”
  • “hackneyed phrases”
  • “a stock answer”
  • “repeating threadbare jokes”
  • “parroting some timeworn axiom”
  • “the trite metaphor”
  • “'”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

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.

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Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.