banalities

noun

plural of banality
as in clichés
an idea or expression that has been used by many people another sitcom based on the banality of roommates with opposite personalities

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of banalities Then morning would come, with all the banalities that drew them apart. — Literary Hub, 18 Aug. 2026 And even though access to such banalities may sound brain-deadening, and at best dull, some of the most famous people in the world are now live-streamers. — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026 For all the women looking up at me to think of me not as a crying heap on a toilet whose baby never latched but as someone who found meaning in all of our daily banalities. — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2026 And yet for God’s sake, just look at the man—at his dispiriting attempts at humor, his weirdly off-putting outfits, his incessant posting of banalities and faux profundities and extreme-right disinformation on social media. — Mark O’Connell, The New York Review of Books, 4 July 2026 Here, Laura, a magazine writer in London, drifts through old friendships, failed romances, and the gothic banalities of family life. — Air Mail, 20 June 2026 One effect of this austerity and repression is to focus attention on Albee’s language, with its slippery banalities and barbs. — Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Apr. 2026 As far back as the Victorian era, exchanging a few banalities was part of a veritable social code—a way of signaling both politeness and boundaries. — Jeanne Ballion, Vogue, 27 Dec. 2025 Written by Noah Oppenheim, Bigelow’s real-time thriller about the banalities and actualities of a fictional-in-premise-only nuclear attack on the United States is Netflix’s best horse in the race at the Oscars this year. — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 19 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for banalities
  1. platitudes
  2. bromides
  3. truisms
  4. tropes
  5. sayings
Noun
  • In between some of the manager’s more clip-worthy quotes, there were more of his usual — and not incorrect — platitudes.
    — Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Today, Instagram unveiled a refresh of its wordmark, accompanied by the usual bland corporate platitudes these kinds of announcements are always packaged with.
    — Aurich Lawson, ArsTechnica, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of platitudes
Noun
  • The president used similar bromides in private calls to assuage allies, including Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson, before launching the war in February, according to people familiar with the conversations.
    — Vivian Salama, The Atlantic, 3 June 2026
  • While these songs might appear to be somewhat straightforward EBM that wear their politics on their latex sleeve, there’s a level of ambiguity at work that moves Kissing Luck Goodbye past its own bromides and into deeper artistic territory.
    — Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 16 Apr. 2026
Definition of bromides
Noun
  • Spain’s success over the past five years has undermined many long-standing political-economic truisms.
    — Rogé Karma, The Atlantic, 1 June 2026
  • The play isn’t subtle; the final sequence leans hard on truisms about addiction and trauma, which are affecting but overly explicit.
    — Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2026
Definition of truisms
Noun
  • The movie goes big on the ‘80s tropes for laughs, including over-the-top costumes and era-specific references, but the love story at its heart is timeless.
    — Kara Nesvig, Parents, 29 Aug. 2026
  • Gacha games far too often fall into the same narrative and gameplay tropes.
    — Gabriel Zamora, PC Magazine, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of tropes
Noun
  • As part of their annual Halloween decor drop, Anthropologie released Halloween bistro tile items that blend classic motifs and sayings with the Bistro Tile Collection’s Parisian style.
    — Claire Hoppe Norgaard, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Teachers of science, mathematics and English were expected to include Quranic verses, sayings and traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad or other religious messages in their lessons.
    — Fatima Faizi, NPR, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of sayings

Browse Nearby Words

banal
banalities
banality
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Cite this Entry

“Banalities.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/banalities. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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