Word Study
banality
CIDE DICTIONARY
banality, n. [F. banalité. See Banal.].
Something commonplace, hackneyed, or trivial; the commonplace, in speech. [1913 Webster]
"The highest things were thus brought down to the banalities of discourse." [1913 Webster]
THESAURUS
banality
banalness, bromide, chestnut, cliche, commonness, commonplace, commonplace expression, commonplaceness, corn, corniness, familiar tune, familiarness, fustiness, hackneyed saying, hackneyedness, lieu commun, locus communis, mustiness, old joke, old saw, old song, old story, platitude, platitudinousness, prosaicism, prosaism, prose, reiteration, retold story, rubber stamp, shibboleth, squareness, staleness, stereotyped saying, tag, trite saying, triteness, triticism, truism, twice-told tale, unoriginalityFor further exploring for "banality" in Webster Dictionary Online