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
Without the anchor of material reality, the life of the artist is reduced to a just-so story of soaring above banalities and complications—one that parses easily into its few dramatic through lines as if the stars were aligned from the start.
—
Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2024
Both the banality and the evil that Dana wants to investigate live within Dad and Daughter, and gradually the poison starts to seep from their memories like blood through gauze.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 11 Dec. 2024
Charismatic male mentors are a cinematic sacred cow, and there is a banality in hearing Isseks’s former underlings pile unconditional praise on him.
—Natalia Winkelman, IndieWire, 31 Jan. 2025
If Jude’s previous two fiction films were Molotov cocktails of indignation, his latest secretes a kind of scentless poison that gets at the banality with which social injustices are processed and rationalized.
—Beatrice Loayza, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for banality
Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2024
Both the banality and the evil that Dana wants to investigate live within Dad and Daughter, and gradually the poison starts to seep from their memories like blood through gauze.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 11 Dec. 2024
Charismatic male mentors are a cinematic sacred cow, and there is a banality in hearing Isseks’s former underlings pile unconditional praise on him.
—Natalia Winkelman, IndieWire, 31 Jan. 2025
If Jude’s previous two fiction films were Molotov cocktails of indignation, his latest secretes a kind of scentless poison that gets at the banality with which social injustices are processed and rationalized.
—Beatrice Loayza, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for banality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for banality
Noun
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However, the billionaire’s use of spending cliches to justify the approach was tough to argue with.—
Zak Garner-Purkis,
Forbes,
23 Mar. 2025
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Normally, that’s one of the most overused cliches in sports.—
Jeremy Rutherford,
The Athletic,
17 Mar. 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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Luxury scented candles, like room sprays for that matter, have the power to elevate any moment: taking it from commonplace to utterly indulgent.—
Stacia Datskovska,
Footwear News,
26 Mar. 2025
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The Grand Ole Opry House holds 4,400 people, but can’t accommodate standing-room tours, a commonplace in genres like EDM and hip-hop.—
Matthew Leimkuehler,
Forbes,
26 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Who hasn’t been placated with corporate platitudes or company swag when advocating for concrete change?—
Leah Asmelash,
CNN,
21 Mar. 2025
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The film follows an ensemble of campers who are weary of platitudes about grief, and speak to one another from a place of radical honesty that is by turns heartbreaking and darkly hilarious, embracing irreverent humor as a cathartic means of self-expression.—
Addie Morfoot,
Variety,
19 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The truism has it that most great New York magazine editors come from away—from the West or the Midwest or across the Atlantic—and arrive with an ability to see what natives don’t.—
Nathan Heller,
The New Yorker,
15 Mar. 2025
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The episode, though, underscored the truism that the papacy is a matter of general public knowledge, interest and debate here, and that speculating about the pope’s current health and who might be next is a national pastime.—
Nicole Winfield,
Los Angeles Times,
20 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Banality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/banality. Accessed 5 Apr. 2025.
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