banal adj

1 obvious and dull; "trivial conversation"; "commonplace prose" [syn: commonplace, trivial]

2 repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse; "bromidic sermons"; "his remarks were trite and commonplace"; "hackneyed phrases"; "a stock answer"; "repeating threadbare jokes"; "parroting some timeworn axiom"; "the trite metaphor `hard as nails'" [syn: commonplace, hackneyed, old-hat, shopworn, stock(a), threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, well-worn]

English

Pronunciation

• , /bəˈnɑːl/, /b@"nA:l/

  Rhymes with: -ɑːl

• , /ˈbeɪnəl/, /"beIn@l/

  Rhymes with: -eɪnəl

Adjective

1. Common in a boring way, to the point of being predictable; containing nothing new or fresh.

Synonyms

• cliche, cliché
• corny
• everyday
• hackneyed
• prosaic
• trite
• vapid

Antonyms

• new
• original

Related terms

• banality
• banalize
• banally

Translations

Breton

Noun

1. bramble
2. broom (a plant, sp. Genista)

French

Pronunciation

• /ba.nal/

Adjective

1. banal

German

Etymology

From banal

Adjective

1. banal

Related terms

• Banalität
• banalisieren

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch banaal

Adjective

1. banal

Tagalog

Adjective

1. pious

Predictability (also called banality) refers to the degree that a correct forecast of a system's state can be made either qualitatively or quantitatively. While the second law of thermodynamics can tell us about the equilibrium state that a system will evolve to, and steady states in dissipative systems can sometimes be predicted, there exists no general rule to predict the time evolution of systems far from equilibrium, etc. chaotic systems, if they do not approach some kind of equilibrium. Their predictability usually deteriorates with time. To quantify predictability, the rate of divergence of system trajectories in phase space can be measured (Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, Lyapunov exponents).

asinine, average, back-number, bewhiskered, bland, bromidic, central, cliched, common, commonplace, corny, cut-and-dried, everyday, fade, familiar, fatuous, flat, fusty, hackney, hackneyed, hoary, humdrum, intermediary, intermediate, jejune, mean, medial, median, mediocre, medium, middle-of-the-road, middling, milk-and-water, moderate, moth-eaten, musty, namby-pamby, normal, old, old hat, ordinary, pedestrian, petty, platitudinous, routine, sapless, set, silly, simple, square, stale, standard, stereotyped, stock, threadbare, timeworn, tired, trite, trivial, truistic, unimaginative, unoriginal, usual, vapid, warmed-over, waterish, watery, well-known, well-worn, wishy-washy, worn, worn thin