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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.
Gary Drenik, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
Indeed, the banal predictability of Kornyev’s slowly mounting humiliations and disillusionments is very much the point.
—Jessica Kiang, Variety, 14 May 2025
In one of the film’s most exquisite moments, Casey shows Jin, from the banal setting of her car, the building that sparked her aesthetic awakening; then her hand, holding a cigarette, traces the building’s outlines, as seen from her own ardently abstracting perspective.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 20 June 2025
What needs to happen to turn the nightcrawler—the same banal creature found in gardens and on flooded sidewalks across the continent—into a valuable commodity? . . .
—Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 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 18 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
Medical Definition
banal
adjective
ba-
-ˈnȧl; bā-ˈnal; ˈbān-ᵊl
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