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How do you pronounce banal?
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.
Examples of banal in a Sentence
Don DeLillo, Mao II, 1991
The 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.
Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 15 Mar. 2025
And, in every case, banal commentary is slowly occluding the art, seeping into it in boldface titles or explainers that speak over the sound or cover the image.
—Namwali Serpell, The New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2025
On the other hand, is there anything more banal than not feeling like an individual in 2025?
—Constance Grady, Vox, 6 Mar. 2025
The thundering poet termed the result uninspired and banal, so the other professor went into Dickinson’s 1,800-poem corpus, retrieved an obscure quatrain and presented it to the poet, who called the result banal and uninspired.
—David Galef, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for banal
Cite this Entry
“Banal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/banal. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
Medical Definition
banal
adjective
ba-
-ˈnȧl; bā-ˈnal; ˈbān-ᵊl
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