Banal: meaning, example and synonyms
Banaladj. So lacking in originality as to be dull and predictable.
Example
Critics praised the film's cinematography but found its dialogue banal, a string of familiar phrases that revealed nothing new about the characters.
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Synonyms
- trite, hackneyed, clichéd, unoriginal
- Antonyms
- original, fresh, novel, striking
- Memory tip
- Banal = bland + normal: so ordinary that it's boring.
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Check yourself: Banal in context
The speech was well delivered but ______, a series of familiar platitudes about hard work and perseverance that the audience had heard at every previous graduation.
Answer: banal. Familiar platitudes heard many times make a speech unoriginal. Erratic, imperious and ingenuous don't describe something stale.
Though the poet's early verses were praised for their startling imagery, her later work struck critics as ______, relying on the same tired comparisons of love to roses and time to rivers.
Answer: banal. Tired, repeated comparisons are trite, contrasting with startling imagery. Imprudent, disingenuous and erratic don't mean unoriginal.