BANAL - 9 definitions found
banal adj 1: 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 `hard as nails'" [syn: banal, commonplace, hackneyed, old-hat, shopworn, stock(a), threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn] banal laban nabal balan alban Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003) banal adjective Etymology: French, from Middle French, of compulsory feudal service, possessed in common, commonplace, from ban Date: 1825 lacking originality, freshness, or novelty ; trite Synonyms: see insipid • banalize transitive verb • banally adverb Oxford English Reference Dictionary
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner\'s English Dictionary banal If you describe something as banal, you do not like it because you think that it is so ordinary that it is not at all effective or interesting. Bland, banal music tinkled discreetly from hidden loudspeakers. ADJ [disapproval] • You can refer to banal things as the banal. The allegations ranged from the banal to the bizarre. N-SING: the N • banality (banalities) ...the banality of life... Neil's ability to utter banalities never ceased to amaze me. N-VAR English Explanatory Dictionary banal bəˈnɑ:l adj. trite, feeble, commonplace. øøbanality n. (pl. -ies). banally adv. [orig. in sense 'compulsory', hence 'common to all', f. F f. ban (as BAN)] Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Banal \Ban"al\, a. [F., fr. ban an ordinance.] Commonplace; trivial; hackneyed; trite. English Explanatory Dictionary (Synonyms) banal bəˈnɑ:l adj. trite, hackneyed, stereotyped, clich÷d, stereotypical, commonplace, old hat, stock, common, everyday, ordinary, pedestrian, humdrum, tired, unoriginal, unimaginative, platitudinous; trivial, petty, jejune, Slang corny: The book was blasted as banal and boring. The plot of boy-meets-girl, though banal, still brings in the audiences. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 72 Moby Thesaurus words for "banal": asinine, average, back-number, bewhiskered, bland, bromidic, central, cliched, common, commonplace, corny, cut-and-dried, everyday, fade, familiar, fatuous, flat, fusty, hackney, hackneyed, hoary, humdrum, intermediary, intermediate, jejune, mean, medial, median, mediocre, medium, middle-of-the-road, middling, milk-and-water, moderate, moth-eaten, musty, namby-pamby, normal, old, old hat, ordinary, pedestrian, petty, platitudinous, routine, sapless, set, silly, simple, square, stale, standard, stereotyped, stock, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, trivial, truistic, unimaginative, unoriginal, usual, vapid, warmed-over, waterish, watery, well-known, well-worn, wishy-washy, worn, worn thin |
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