How to Use banal in a Sentence

banal

adjective
  • The writing was banal but the story was good.
  • He made some banal remarks about the weather.
  • The truth of the love triangle was both more banal and more strange.
    — Rachel Nolan, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
  • Couldn't think of something more boring and banal and a waste of time.
    — Megan Cartwright, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Couldn’t think of something more boring and banal and a waste of time.
    — Todd Spangler, Variety, 14 Sep. 2025
  • But contrary to the banal refrain, all press isn’t good press.
    — Paige McGlauflin, Fortune, 9 May 2022
  • And that fact alone brings a new meaning—and a new weight—to even the most banal of our pleasantries.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2020
  • That’s the kind of thing that happened in a banal, regular place.
    — The Editors Of Ad, Architectural Digest, 7 Feb. 2025
  • No longer quite so normal, Rooney reaches for the banal and grasps tiny worlds.
    — Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2021
  • And that’s just one side of the building, running along a banal strip of the boulevard.
    — Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 14 June 2018
  • The words Eliza sings are banal, but the sound behind them is the force of destiny.
    — Charles McNultytheater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2022
  • But there are a million humbler ways that his—and my—most banal thoughts might be useful.
    — Lauren Silverman, The Atlantic, 28 Nov. 2022
  • This is certainly true—and a rather banal truism.
    — The Atlantic, 16 June 2026
  • The stakes and the spectacles are as grand as the evil is chillingly banal.
    — The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2023
  • Part of the film’s charm is in how seemingly banal moments take on a more tender feel.
    — Liana Satenstein, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Leave it to Solange to inject some fresh air into something so banal.
    — Rachel Hahn, Vogue, 15 May 2018
  • There are a number of very common uses for balloons, some creepy and some banal.
    — Pranshu Verma, Washington Post, 15 Feb. 2023
  • And yet, the facts on the ground in the real-life cases were so chillingly banal.
    — Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Sep. 2023
  • The only health advice more banal than being told to wash your hands is being told to sleep more.
    — James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 21 Dec. 2020
  • Among the young, basic has been sharpened into an insult slung at the banal.
    — Leah Eskin, charlotteobserver, 26 Jan. 2018
  • These banal everyday tasks set the scene — for her, this is just a regular day.
    — Anne Cohen, refinery29.com, 3 June 2021
  • After all, aren’t most of us trapped in the same day over and over again, trying to find meaning in the banal?
    — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2017
  • What sets her off is a small, banal incident — the way so many of these eruptions happen.
    — Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 16 Mar. 2024
  • Rage sits on the pages among the everyday updates of life, as if the anger itself was banal.
    — Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 22 Apr. 2026
  • The other half of the movie is much less interesting, even banal.
    — Kyle Smith, WSJ, 23 Nov. 2022
  • What emerges in all this back-and-forth is more than just a banal dispute over whose musical style is more au courant.
    — Tribune News Service, cleveland, 25 Nov. 2020
  • This is a banal statement of law, one that Hegseth himself has made publicly in years past.
    — Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Many of the unredacted image files are banal or not explicit.
    — Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 20 Dec. 2025
  • The objects inside could have been shipped in a banal envelope.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2020
  • What was banal can, with the passage of time, become fantastic.
    — Steff Yotka, Vogue, 9 Apr. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'banal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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