Both Uses

banal
in
A Death in the Family
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He began to realize the emotion, and the loneliness, behind the banality of what she had said; he was ashamed of himself to have answered as if it were merely banal.†
Chpt 9 *

banality = something that is uninteresting due to a lack of anything original or unusual
He began to realize the emotion, and the loneliness, behind the banality of what she had said; he was ashamed of himself to have answered as if it were merely banal.†
Chpt 9

banal = uninteresting due to a lack of anything original or unusual

Definitions:

(1) (banal)
uninteresting due to a lack of anything original or unusual

Pronunciation: Banal is correctly pronounced differently by various educated speakers of American English.
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)