Banal

Definition: Banal

Banal

Adjective

1. Obvious and dull; "trivial conversation"; "commonplace prose".

2. 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'".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "banal" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1842. (references)

Etymology: Banal \Ban"al\, adjective. [French expression, from ban an ordinance.]. (references)

Synonyms: Banal

Crosswords: Banal

Albanian (banal, blue, broad, common or garden, copybook, corny, hackneyed, platitudinous, salacious), French (banal, commonplace, corny, dismal, general purpose, mundane, platitudinous, run of the mill, slushy, tired, trite, trivial, vapid, well worn, workaday), German (banal, banally, commonplace, dismal, hackneyed, mundane, trite, trivial), Indonesian (banal, trite), Norwegian (corny, hackneyed), Portuguese (banal, characterless, common, commonplace, dismal, flimsy, hackneyed, humdrum, platitudinarian, platitudinous, potty, prosaic, prosy, quotidian, ready-made, stale, trifling, trite, trivial, undistinguished, unimportant, unoriginal, vulgar), Romanian (banal, cheap, commonplace, daily, dusty, everyday, hackneyed, humdrum, indifferent, indistinctive, insipid, mediocre, puerile, small, threadbare, trite, trivial, unimaginative), Spanish (banal, hackneyed, trivial), Swedish (banal, commonplace, corny, dismal, flat, hack, hackneyed, humdrum, insipid, novelettish, platitudinarian, threadbare, trite), Turkish (banal).

Alaalang banal (1958)

C'est pas banal (2002)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• A estranha vida banal (reference)

• Banal Nationalism (reference)

• Banal und erhaben : es ist (nicht) alles eins (reference)

• Uma banal histâoria de amor (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• Everything Is Banal [IMPORT] (reference)

• Iniciacao a Uma Vida Banal - O Manual [IMPORT] (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Albanian

banal (blue, broad, common or garden, copybook, corny, hackneyed, platitudinous, salacious), vulgar (coarse, common, gross, low, low-lived, low-minded, raffish, ribald, tawdry, vulgar, vulgarian), i rëndomtë (base, coarse, common, commonplace, copybook, corny, everyday, habitual, hackneyed, homely, mundane, ordinary, plain, platitudinous, prose, prosy, second rate, substandard, trite, vulgar). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مبتذل (common, commonplace, conventional, corny, everyday, fade, fading, hack, hackneyed, outworn, overused, pedestrian, platitudinous, plebeian, prosaic, prose, routine, slipshod, stale, stereotyped, tacky, threadbare, tired, trite, trivial, vapid, vulgar, well worn, workaday, worn out), ‏تافه (commonplace, contemptible, crummy, fade, fiddling, flat, foolish, footling, fractional, frivolous, frothy, good for nothing, inane, inconsiderable, insignificant, junk, light, lilliputian, little, lowbrow, measly, minute, naught, negligible, niggling, nonsensical, nugatory, null, paltry, pedestrian, petty, piddling, pimping, piteous, pitiable, platitudinous, pointless, puny, ridiculous, run of the mill, silly, slight, slim, small time, smelly, stupid, trifle, trifling, trite, trivial, trumpery, two a penny, two bit, twopenny-halfpenny, unimportant, unsavory, unsavoury, unworthy, vain, valueless, vapid, vile, worthless), ‏عادي (average, classless, common, commonplace, conventional, household, lay, mean, medial, mediocre, middling, mundane, natural, normal, ordinary, plain, plebeian, poor, prosaic, run of the mill, second rate, simple, some, stock, trivial, unexceptional, wont), ‏بايخ (rotten, tired, trite, vapid). (various references)

Bulgarian 

банален (commonplace, everyday, flatulent, hack, hackneyed, namby-pamby, pedestrian, platitudinous, quotidian, tired, trite, trivial, twice-told, vapid, well worn, worn out). (various references)

Chinese 

陈腐 (Banalities, Banality, trite). (various references)

Czech

banální (corny, hackneyed, trite), triviální (frivolous, piddling, platitudinous, trifling, trivial). (various references)

Farsi 

پیش پاافتاده (Common, Commonplace, Ordinary), معمولی (Common, Commonplace, General, Ordinary, Ornery), مبتذل (Commonplace, Humdrum, Pedestrian, Stale, Trivial, Vulgar), همه جاءی (Commonplace). (various references)

Finnish

banaali (commonplace). (various references)

French

banal, ordinaire. (various references)

German

banal (banally, commonplace, dismal, hackneyed, mundane, trite, trivial). (various references)

Greek 

κοινόσ (common, commonplace, communal, mutual, ordinary, stock), τετριμμένοσ (commonplace, hackneyed, outworn, platitudinous, prosaic, prosaical, shopworn, threadbare, trite, well worn, worn out). (various references)

Hebrew 

שבלוני (hackneyed, stereotypical, trite), בנלי (platitudinous), בנאלי, נדוש (hackneyed, platitudinous, stale, threshed, trite, well worn). (various references)

Hungarian

banális (commonplace, corny, dismal, quotidian, stale, trite), elcsépelt (commonplace, corny, hackneyed, overworked, rinky-dink, stale, threadbare, trite, trivial, well-trodden). (various references)

Indonesian

biasa (accustomed, adjusted, conversant, habitual, lay, ordinary, regular, trivial, usual), banal (trite), dangkal (shallow, superficial). (various references)

Italian

banale (common, commonplace, corny, dismal, hackneyed, mundane, platitudinous, prosy, trite, trivial). (various references)

Manx

taareeagh, frittagh (bird-witted, brainless, frivolous, inconstant, trifling). (various references)

Pig Latin

analbay.(various references)

Portuguese

banal (characterless, common, commonplace, dismal, flimsy, hackneyed, humdrum, platitudinarian, platitudinous, potty, prosaic, prosy, quotidian, ready-made, stale, trifling, trite, trivial, undistinguished, unimportant, unoriginal, vulgar), vulgar (accepted, artless, blanket, coarse, common, commonplace, demotic, dismal, earthy, everyday, gossipy, gross, hackney, hackneyed, humdrum, inelaborate, low, low-minded, mediocre, ordinary, pedestrian, penny-a-line, platitudinarian, platitudinous, prosaic, quotidian, ready-made, soulless, trite, trivial, undistinguished, uninspired, unladylike, unoriginal, usual, vulgar, vulgarian), trivial (blanket, bread and butter, common, commonplace, course, dismal, inelaborate, light, pedestrian, petty, piddling, platitudinarian, platitudinous, potty, prosy, puerile, quotidian, slight, small, threadbare, trifling, trite, trivial, unimportant, uninspired, vulgar). (various references)

Romanian

banal (cheap, commonplace, daily, dusty, everyday, hackneyed, humdrum, indifferent, indistinctive, insipid, mediocre, puerile, small, threadbare, trite, trivial, unimaginative), comun (base, common, communal, current, everyday, frequent, general, joint, low, mediocre, mutual, ordinary, rife, universal, usual, vulgar). (various references)

Russian 

банальный (commonplace, corny, hack, hackneyed, obvious, platitudinarian, platitudinous, prosy, quotidian, trite). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

banalan (camp, commonplace, corny, crude, hackneyed, trite). (various references)

Spanish

trivial (commonplace, dismal, fiddling, footling, mundane, piffling, platitudinous, sapless, trite, trivial), banal (hackneyed, trivial). (various references)

Swedish

banal (commonplace, corny, dismal, flat, hack, hackneyed, humdrum, insipid, novelettish, platitudinarian, threadbare, trite). (various references)

Thai

น่าเบื่อ (arid, boring, dull, humdrum, jejune, tasteless, tired). (various references)

Turkish

bayağı (camp, cheap, coarse, coarse grained, common, common as dirt, commonplace, corrupt, dastardly, debased, goodish, inferior, lewd, little, low camp, low class, no class, ordinary, plebeian, pretty, prosaic, quite, rather, run-off-the-mill, shoddy, tawdry, tolerably, vulgar), basmakalıp (cliché, common place, conventional, copybook, hackneyed, Pat, platitudinous, routine, set, stereotyped, stock, trite, well worn), banal, sıradan (average, blah, casual, casually, common, common or garden, commonplace, copybook, cut and dried, exoteric, hack, hackneyed, mediocre, nondescript, ordinary, prosaic, quotidian, regular, routine, run-off-the-mill, small, straight, unexceptional, workaday). (various references)

Turkmen 

lenз bolmak (be hackneyed, tritel). (various references)

Ukrainian

вульгарний (blatant, caddish, coarse, gross, low, low down, non-u, parvenu, raffish, unladylike, vapid, vulgar, vulgarian), обов'язковий для всіх (compulsory), банальний (commonplace, hack, hackneyed, humdrum, obvious, platitudinous, quotidian, trite, worn). (various references)

Vietnamese 

vô vị (arid, drily, dry, dryasdust, dryly, dusty, insipid, milk and water, platitudinarian, platitudinous, savourless, tame, tasteless, unsavoury, watery), thường (habitual, mediocre, normal, often, oftentimes, ordinary, still, trifling, trivial, unsatisfactory, usual, vulgar), tầm thường; sáo (commonplace). (various references)

Welsh

sathredig (common, vulgar), cyffredin (common, general). (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "banal": banalities, banality, banalize, banalized, banalizes, banalizing, banally. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Banal" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Abenhall, abgal, abhal, abhall, Baaaaaa, baael, baan, Baanga, babal, Babalu, bafal, bagal, Bagna, Bagnar, Bagnell, Bagnol, Bagnoli, Bahal, baia, Bakal, Balal, balan, Balnab, bana, banai, banan, Banas, Banba, Bancau, Bandala, banel, Bangay, banial, banik, Banim, banka, bannal, bannas, Bannau, Bannell, bannil, Bansal, Banza, baral, Baraul, Barnaul, Barnault, batal, Batala, baual, bavai, bdna, Bednall, Bemal, benal, Benhall, Bennals, Bennell, Bental, Bentall, Bienal, Bignell, bina, Binab, Binul, Binulu, Bonald, Bonaly, bonam, bonil, Bonnal, brana, Bunyala, kanal, nabal, sanal. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: alan, alba, anal, baal.

-2 letters: aal, aba, ala, alb, ana, baa, bal, ban, lab, nab.

-3 letters: aa, ab, al, an, ba, la, na.

+2 letters: abalone, abelian, albinal, badland, balance, balneal, banally, basinal, blatant, namable.

+3 letters: abalones, ablating, ablation, abnormal, ambulant, amenable, amenably, anableps, anabolic, atonable, backland, badlands, bailsman, balanced, balancer, balances, banality, banalize, bangtail, bankable, barnacle, baronial, beanball, biannual, bimanual, binaural, blatancy, brantail, cannibal, claybank, damnable, damnably, fahlband, fleabane, gainable, galbanum, gnawable, handball, hangable, inarable, labdanum, landgrab, loanable, nameable, pawnable, scabland, subnasal, tannable.