How to Use banality in a Sentence

banality

noun
  • The trip offers an escape from the banalities of daily life.
  • We exchanged banalities about the weather.
  • The writing never rose above banality.
  • An era of your career can’t come to a close with that kind of banality.
    — Lila MacLellan, Quartz at Work, 8 July 2019
  • No longer are the stakes confined to banalities on your news feed.
    — Tracey Lien, latimes.com, 23 Mar. 2018
  • Both the forms and the motions are simple to the point of banality.
    — The Economist, 22 July 2017
  • But it’s been a while since the coaches or players had such banality.
    — Jim Owczarski, Journal Sentinel, 29 Sep. 2022
  • In the last few decades, that swagger seems to have collapsed under the weight of a tepid banality.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2026
  • The film is a harrowing look at the banality of evil in its most dangerous form.
    — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Jan. 2026
  • The film is a harrowing look at the banality of evil in its most dangerous form.
    — Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 2 Aug. 2022
  • Her actions on that momentous night have been ridiculed as a sign of banality and a lack of feeling.
    — Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2021
  • Life for him is too absurd to wallow in tragedy and too depressing for feel-good banalities.
    — Mark Richardson, WSJ, 29 Jan. 2020
  • Cleo stirs in Johnny a sense of wonder absent from the banality of his movie-star life.
    — Sonia Rao, Washington Post, 5 Nov. 2023
  • And banality – well, that has a little bit to do with the uncanny valley.
    — John Werner, Forbes, 24 Jan. 2025
  • This novel is about the banality of the evil that is systemic misogyny.
    — New York Times, 14 Apr. 2020
  • The only effect was to put the banality of the clothes farther away from the audience.
    — Cathy Horyn, The Cut, 28 Sep. 2017
  • That doesn’t hurt, especially when dealing with topics that can turn out to be traps of banality.
    — Billboard Italy, Billboard, 22 May 2024
  • Using euphemisms to cover for atrocities is the essence of the banality of evil.
    — Anna Lind-Guzik, Vox, 20 June 2019
  • Baldwin’s essay is a cri de coeur on the banality of American life.
    — Time, 30 Apr. 2021
  • Communion does him no favors, though, mostly in its sheer banality.
    — Literary Hub, 25 June 2026
  • The evening consists of short, episodic scenes marked by their banality despite the play's serious themes.
    — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Feb. 2020
  • There’s a lot of banality in being a coach; a lot of clapping hands, a lot of halftime speeches that blend together.
    — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2024
  • This punishing process, thread by thread, inch by inch, keeps luridness from sinking into banality.
    — Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The mother of the bride doesn’t know that the wedding is all a big joke and a charade and a futile attempt to wring meaning from banality.
    — Rosa Lyster, The Cut, 20 July 2017
  • Knausgaard is acutely in tune with the simultaneity of life’s majesty and banality.
    — Charles Arrowsmith, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Quarantine life is quite monotonous and getting dolled up has been a nice escape from the banality of the day to day.
    — Shalwah Evans, Essence, 13 Apr. 2020
  • The banality of her words about Ma Binney was terrible.
    — Literary Hub, 18 Mar. 2026
  • But even Hewitt was aghast at the sheer cruelty of this and the banality of Sessions’s response to it.
    — Andrew Sullivan, Daily Intelligencer, 8 June 2018
  • Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil when discussing the moral wrongs brought about by hierarchy.
    — Max Norman, Outside Online, 13 Apr. 2021
  • The novel’s power lies in its relentless banality—the mind churning while life’s machinery grinds on.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'banality.' 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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