Link Centre Dictionary

bland

UK/bland/ US/blænd/ uncommon archaic uk

adjective

1.

lacking either stimulating or irritating characteristics

  • “a bland pudding”
  • “a bland diet for her irritated stomach”
Antonyms
2.

lacking taste or flavor or tang

  • “a bland diet”
  • “insipid hospital food”
  • “flavorless supermarket tomatoes”
  • “vapid beer”
  • “vapid tea”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting

  • “a bland little drama”
  • “a flat joke”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From Middle English bland, from Old English bland, blond (“blending, mixture, confusion”), from Proto-Germanic *blandą (“a mixing, mixture”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ- (“to grow turbid, dim, see badly, be blind”). Cognate with Icelandic blanda (“a mixture of liquids, especially of hot whey and water”).

Phrases

  • Bland County
  • Bland-White-Garland syndrome
  • in bland

Related words

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.