banality

noun

ba·​nal·​i·​ty bə-ˈna-lə-tē  bā- 

also ba-

plural banalities

1

: something that lacks originality, freshness, or novelty : something banal : commonplace

2

: the quality or state of lacking new or interesting qualities : the quality or state of being banal

Synonyms of banality

• cliché
• bromide
• commonplace
• platitude
• truism
• trope
• chestnut
• saying

Examples of banality in a Sentence

The trip offers an escape from the banalities of daily life.

We exchanged banalities about the weather.

The writing never rose above banality.

Recent Examples on the Web

Of course, when a person live-streams long enough, banality can eventually give way to horror. — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026

For all the women looking up at me to think of me not as a crying heap on a toilet whose baby never latched but as someone who found meaning in all of our daily banalities. — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2026

Commentary and opinions In his latest column, Gustavo Arellano breaks down the banality of evil in the Border Patrol’s secret anti-immigrant slur. — Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2026

And yet for God’s sake, just look at the man—at his dispiriting attempts at humor, his weirdly off-putting outfits, his incessant posting of banalities and faux profundities and extreme-right disinformation on social media. — Mark O’Connell, The New York Review of Books, 4 July 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French banalité, from banal "available for general use, commonplace, banal" + -ité -ity

Note: The modern French word is probably an eighteenth-century coinage, and not continuous with Middle French bannalité "a feudal lord's right to extract usage fees, area under such a jurisdiction."

First Known Use

1821, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for banality

• bestiality
• brutality
• carnality
• centrality
• chirality
• duality
• fatality
• finality
• formality
• frugality
• legality
• lethality