There are several pronunciations of banal, but the three most common are \BAY-nul\, \buh-NAHL\, and \buh-NAL\ (which rhymes with canal). The earliest pronunciation given in our dictionaries is the now-unused \BAN-ul\ (rhymes with “flannel); it is attested to in our dictionaries back to the 1800s, but has dropped out of use. \BAY-nul\ is the next oldest pronunciation. The more recent \buh-NAL\ and \buh-NAHL\ came about through French influence, since banal was borrowed into English from French, and those two pronunciations are closer to the French pronunciation of banal. All three pronunciations are acceptable in educated speech; \buh-NAL\ is currently the most common, followed by \BAY-nul\ and then \buh-NAHL. There is no reason to condemn any of them as incorrect.
insipid implies a lack of sufficient taste or savor to please or interest.
an insipid romance with platitudes on every page
vapid suggests a lack of liveliness, force, or spirit.
an exciting story given a vapid treatment
flat applies to things that have lost their sparkle or zest.
although well-regarded in its day, the novel now seems flat
jejune suggests a lack of rewarding or satisfying substance.
a jejune and gassy speech
banal stresses the complete absence of freshness, novelty, or immediacy.
a banal tale of unrequited love
inane implies a lack of any significant or convincing quality.
an inane interpretation of the play
Examples of banal in a Sentence
The more banal, the more commonplace, the more predictable, the triter, the staler, the dumber, the better.—Don DeLillo, Mao II, 1991The instructor's script is banal, relying heavily on images of waves on a beach or clouds in the sky.—Maxine Kumin, "Wintering Over,"1979,
in In Deep, 1987… it seemed to me that computers have been used in ways that are salutary, in ways that are dangerous, banal and cruel, and in ways that seem harmless if a little silly.—Tracy Kidder, The Soul of a New Machine, 1981
He made some banal remarks about the weather.
The writing was banal but the story was good.
Recent Examples on the WebWhat sets her off is a small, banal incident — the way so many of these eruptions happen.—Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 16 Mar. 2024 The villa belongs to Nazi commander Rudolf Höss (played by Christian Friedel), who oversees the extermination machine that is Auschwitz as his wife and children go about their banal daily routines.—Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2024 Watching their banal existence, including Höss' nonchalant living room discussion of cutting-edge gas chambers, slides under your skin in a chilling way that signals indefinite occupation.—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2024 Nothing makes a couple’s emotional issues seem small and banal like a backdrop of cosmic infinity.—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2024 There’s something quite banal about everything going terribly well for somebody.—Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 14 Feb. 2024 There were so many theories about my presence on the island, ranging from the banal to the absurd, that the Alderney Press ran an article for the express purpose of debunking them.—Rebecca Panovka, Harper's Magazine, 9 Feb. 2024 From the beginning of the 2016 campaign to the present day, a dominant theme has been how, in Trump world, the banal duplicity a person tends to experience in a political operation has reached a kind of baroque late-stage Darwinism.—Robert Draper, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2024 Charlene’s perspective helps to elevate McDermott’s somewhat banal plot to literary fiction.—Diane Scharper, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'banal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from French, "pertaining to a feudal lord's right to extract usage fees for mills, ovens, etc., within his jurisdiction, available for general use, ordinary, commonplace, trite," going back to Old French bannel "subject to a feudal lord's jurisdiction, of seigneurial authority," borrowed from Medieval Latin bannālis, banālis "ordered by a ban, invested with public authority," from bannus, bannum "order given by a public authority, authority, jurisdiction" (borrowed from Old Low Franconian *banna- "call to arms by a lord") + Latin -ālis-al entry 1 — more at ban entry 2
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