ban

1 of 3

verb

ˈban 

banned; banning; bans

transitive verb

1

: to prohibit especially by legal means

ban discrimination

Is smoking banned in all public buildings?

also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of

ban a book

ban a pesticide

2

: bar entry 2 sense 3c

banned from the U.N.

3

archaic : curse

It is a hard fate … to be banned … by the world, only because one has sought to be wiser than the world is.

—Edward Bulwer Lytton

intransitive verb

archaic : to utter curses or condemnations

The serious world will scold and ban …

—Joseph Rodman Drake

ban

2 of 3

noun (1)

plural bans

1

: legal or formal prohibition

a ban on beef exports

2

: censure or condemnation especially through social pressure

was under ban for her political views

3

religion : anathema, excommunication

under the pope's ban

4

: malediction, curse

uttered a ban upon his enemies

5

: the summoning in feudal times of the king's vassals for military service

ban

3 of 3

noun (2)

ˈbän 

plural bani ˈbä-(ˌ)nē 

: a monetary subunit of the leu see leu at Money Table

Synonyms

Verb

• prohibit
• forbid
• outlaw

Noun (1)

• curse
• condemnation

Examples of ban in a Sentence

Verb

The school banned that book for many years.

The city has banned smoking in all public buildings.

The drug was banned a decade ago.

The use of cell phones is banned in the restaurant.

Noun (1)

a father's ban upon his ungrateful son

a quiet seaside resort with a ban on the drinking of alcohol in public places

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

But in other parts of the country, unruly and often unsupervised kids have led to some breweries banning little ones from their spaces entirely or during certain times, the New York Times reported this summer. —Jordyn Noennig, jsonline.com, 27 Oct. 2025

Originally an agricultural town, cemeteries began to take root in Colma after a 1901 ordinance banned new burials within San Francisco’s city limits, a decision driven by limited real estate and a booming population. —Ryan MacAsero, Mercury News, 26 Oct. 2025

Noun

Despite the ban, enthusiasts have continued to jump in secret, often at dawn or dusk to avoid detection. —Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 28 Oct. 2025

More schools are adopting policies banning cell phones, from all-out bans that forbid students from taking their phones out at any time of day to more flexible policies that allow older students to have their phones out during lunch or other breaks. —Lily Altavena, Freep.com, 27 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation, assemble (an armed force), gather (arms), curse, anathematize, prohibit, outlaw," going back to Old English bannan (class VII strong verb) "to summon by proclamation, call to arms," going back to Germanic *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" (whence also Old Frisian bonna, banna "to call upon, command, place under a ban," Old Saxon & Old High German bannan "to summon, order," Old Norse banna "to prohibit, curse"), going back to Indo-European *b^ho-n-h₂-e-, presumed o-grade intensive derivative (with gemination from a present formation with *-nu̯-e-?) from a verbal base *b^heh₂- "speak, say," whence also Latin for, fārī "to speak, say," Greek phēmí, phánai, Armenian bay "(s/he) says, speaks," and with extensions Eastern Church Slavic baju, bajati "to tell (stories), cast a spell, cure," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian bȁjati "to tell tales, practice sorcery," Sanskrit bhánati "(s/he) speaks, says, (it) sounds"

Note: The senses "curse, anathematize, prohibit," etc., in Middle English are not attested in Old English and are generally thought to reflect influence of the cognate Old Norse verb. The English verb has also been influenced in sense by Medieval Latin bannīre and Old French banir (see banish). — The reconstruction of the source of Germanic *bannan- in Indo-European terms is from G. Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Brill, 2013), though any number of alternative reconstructions are possible that result in the new verbal base *bann-. Indo-European *b^heh₂- "speak, say" is phonetically identical with and probably a semantic offshoot of the base *b^heh₂- "shine, give light, appear" (see fantasy entry 1); the presumed sense in shift would be "shine, give light" > "make bright, illuminate" > "make clear, clarify" > "speak, say."

Noun (1)

Middle English ban, bane, banne "proclamation by an authority, summons, one of the marriage banns, troop of warriors summoned by their overlord," in part noun derivative of bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation," in part borrowed from Anglo-French ban, baan "proclamation, edict, jurisdiction, one of the marriage banns" (also continental Old French, "summons to arms by a lord, proclamation commanding or prohibiting an action"), going back to Old Low Franconian *banna-, going back to Germanic (whence also Old Frisian bon, ban, bān "order commanding or prohibiting under pain of a fine, authority, summoning of the army, banishment," Old Saxon bann "command, summons, fine, excommunication," Old High German ban "command by an authority, order, legal extension or withdrawal of protection"), noun derivative of *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" — more at ban entry 1

Note: The Middle English noun may also continue Old English gebann, gebenn "edict, proclamation, command," a derivative of gebannan, similar in meaning to unprefixed bannan. The negative senses "prohibition, condemnation," etc., though present to a limited degree already in early Medieval Latin, do not appear in English (or French) until the sixteenth century, and are in part derived from the verb ban entry 1. The Germanic etymon appears in Latin as bannus (or bannum), from the sixth century in Gregory of Tours' Historia Francorum, and the seventh century in the Lex Ripuaria, the laws of the Ripuarian Franks; the Latin word went on to develop a broad range of meanings (compare the entries in J. F. Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus and Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources).

Noun (2)

Romanian, money, coin, small coin

First Known Use

Verb

12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 3

Noun (1)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 5

Noun (2)

1880, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing ban

• arrière-ban
• shadow ban
• test ban
• trigger ban

Rhymes for ban

• an
• bran
• can
• cann
• clan
• duan
• fan
• flan
• gran
• jann
• klan
• lan

Kids Definition

ban

1 of 2 verb

ˈban 

banned; banning

1

: to forbid especially by law or social pressure

2

: bar entry 2 sense 4

ban

2 of 2 noun

1

: curse entry 1 sense 1

2

: an official order forbidding something

Legal Definition

ban

1 of 2 transitive verb

banned; banning

: to prohibit or forbid especially by legal means (as by statute or order)

ban solicitation

also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of

legislation to ban DDT

ban

2 of 2 noun

: prohibition especially by statute or order

a ban on automatic weapons