as in cliche
an idea or expression that has been used by many people
another sitcom based on the banality of roommates with opposite personalities
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Recent Examples of banality
The banality of state terror infecting common lives is what makes The Seed of the Sacred Fig so recognizable.
—
Armond White, National Review, 22 Jan. 2025
Perhaps there’s something melancholy but appealing about the idea of a passionate romance that speeds up time, leaving one person with only difficult but beautiful memories, instead of the banalities of daily life that accompany a long partnership.
—Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2025
The movie highlights the ‘banality of evil,’ a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt, and puts forward the idea that the commandant was just a person, not a monster.
—Saskya Vandoorne, CNN, 17 Jan. 2025
Barton appears to enjoy juxtaposing the banality of Helen’s life as a wife and mother—flawlessly hosting her husband’s holiday work party, sticking jewels on a crown for a Nativity costume—with the extravagant action of her secret life.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for banality
Armond White, National Review, 22 Jan. 2025
Perhaps there’s something melancholy but appealing about the idea of a passionate romance that speeds up time, leaving one person with only difficult but beautiful memories, instead of the banalities of daily life that accompany a long partnership.
—Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2025
The movie highlights the ‘banality of evil,’ a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt, and puts forward the idea that the commandant was just a person, not a monster.
—Saskya Vandoorne, CNN, 17 Jan. 2025
Barton appears to enjoy juxtaposing the banality of Helen’s life as a wife and mother—flawlessly hosting her husband’s holiday work party, sticking jewels on a crown for a Nativity costume—with the extravagant action of her secret life.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for banality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for banality
Noun
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But my money’s on Baker, one of the world’s finest filmmakers who tells stories about characters Hollywood so often turns into cliches and leaves behind.—
Randy Myers,
The Mercury News,
25 Feb. 2025
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All the cliches about how hard he’s worked in the weight room and on the football field … his work in the classroom is even more impressive, if not equally impressive.—
Brendan Connelly,
Boston Herald,
22 Feb. 2025
Noun
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The two-dimensional characters communicate in bromides; Lena’s fellow privates, who suffer from the laziest defining characteristics (coarse Southern gal, proper preacher’s daughter, New Yorker), are the worst offenders.—
Vikram Murthi,
IndieWire,
6 Dec. 2024
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In place of triumph-of-the-human-spirit bromides, though, what the book delivers is its own kind of cinema, harsh and true.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
8 July 2024
Noun
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Cora’s passion is helping people discover new ways to think about the commonplace, like our clothing.—
Cora Harrington,
Miami Herald,
30 Jan. 2025
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Putting them all together in one attack exploit, however, is far from commonplace.—
Davey Winder,
Forbes,
21 Dec. 2024
Noun
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No matter how appropriate the words are, the communication will feel less like a celebration and more like an inauthentic, low-effort platitude due to the lack of human effort.—
Andrew Brodsky,
TIME,
11 Feb. 2025
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Perhaps the fires that devastated Los Angeles in early January will take such platitudes out of circulation, at least for a little while.—
Alex Ross,
The New Yorker,
1 Feb. 2025
Noun
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But there’s a truism embedded in its hyperbole: Most people on good terms with their mother would describe her as the world’s greatest, regardless of any flaws and errors along the way.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
17 Feb. 2025
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Sure, better a Jesse than the Pacific Lumber Company, but there’s still a sentimental solipsism in Redwood, an uneasy aspect of emotional tourism smothered in a broadside of throw-pillow truisms on connection, growth, and healing.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
13 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Banality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/banality. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.
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