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banal.

Common in a boring way, to the point of being predictable; containing nothing new or fresh.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/bəˈnɑːl//ˈbeɪnəl//bəˈnæl/
  1. Common in a boring way, to the point of being predictable; containing nothing new or fresh.

    banal clichés
    banal conversation
  2. Relating to a type of feudal jurisdiction or service.

    historical · uncommon
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French banal (“held in common, relating to feudal service, by extension commonplace”), from Old French banel, related to Medieval Latin bannālis (“subject to feudal authority”), from Latin bannus (“jurisdiction”), both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to order, summon, forbid”). Equivalent to ban + -al. See also ban, abandon.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.