There are several pronunciations of banal, but the three most common are \BAY-nul\, \buh-NAHL\, and \buh-NAL\ (which rhymes with canal). The earliest pronunciation given in our dictionaries is the now-unused \BAN-ul\ (rhymes with flannel); it is attested to in our dictionaries back to the 1800s, but has dropped out of use. \BAY-nul\ is the next oldest pronunciation. The more recent \buh-NAL\ and \buh-NAHL\ came about through French influence, since banal was borrowed into English from French, and those two pronunciations are closer to the French pronunciation of banal. All three pronunciations are acceptable in educated speech; \buh-NAL\ is currently the most common, followed by \BAY-nul\ and then \buh-NAHL\. There is no reason to condemn any of them as incorrect.
insipid implies a lack of sufficient taste or savor to please or interest.
an insipid romance with platitudes on every page
vapid suggests a lack of liveliness, force, or spirit.
an exciting story given a vapid treatment
flat applies to things that have lost their sparkle or zest.
although well-regarded in its day, the novel now seems flat
jejune suggests a lack of rewarding or satisfying substance.
a jejune and gassy speech
banal stresses the complete absence of freshness, novelty, or immediacy.
a banal tale of unrequited love
inane implies a lack of any significant or convincing quality.
an inane interpretation of the play
Examples of banal in a Sentence
The more banal, the more commonplace, the more predictable, the triter, the staler, the dumber, the better.—Don DeLillo, Mao II, 1991The instructor's script is banal, relying heavily on images of waves on a beach or clouds in the sky.—Maxine Kumin, "Wintering Over,"1979,
in In Deep, 1987… it seemed to me that computers have been used in ways that are salutary, in ways that are dangerous, banal and cruel, and in ways that seem harmless if a little silly.—Tracy Kidder, The Soul of a New Machine, 1981
He made some banal remarks about the weather.
The writing was banal but the story was good.
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The unfathomable is unsettling, and that makes the most banal thought a shelter.—Yiyun Li, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2025 What’s immediately striking is how quickly and economically its characters are established in medias res, through seemingly banal conversation and hints of individual personality just divergent enough to cause friction.—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 9 Mar. 2025 Dream Count is peppered with excerpts of For Men Only’s invariably banal advice (there are many ways to be a man, etc.), blog entries so anemic that you’re left wondering whether that’s the point: Nobody’s heart is really in communicating.—Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, 5 Mar. 2025 Conclave reduces philosophical and spiritual issues to the cheapest and most banal melodrama.—Armond White, National Review, 19 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for banal
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from French, "pertaining to a feudal lord's right to extract usage fees for mills, ovens, etc., within his jurisdiction, available for general use, ordinary, commonplace, trite," going back to Old French bannel "subject to a feudal lord's jurisdiction, of seigneurial authority," borrowed from Medieval Latin bannālis, banālis "ordered by a ban, invested with public authority," from bannus, bannum "order given by a public authority, authority, jurisdiction" (borrowed from Old Low Franconian *banna- "call to arms by a lord") + Latin -ālis-al entry 1 — more at ban entry 2
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