Mundane

/mʌnˈdeɪn/

adjectivemedium📊CommonGeneral
1 meaning3 questions

Definitions

1

Relating to the ordinary, everyday world; commonplace; not spiritual; not sacred.

/mʌnˈdeɪn/

adjectiveneutralmedium
General

Lacking interest or excitement; ordinary.

His job involved a lot of mundane tasks, like filing papers and answering phones.

💡 Simply: Imagine your week is full of the same old stuff: waking up, going to work, eating dinner, watching TV. That kind of boring, everyday stuff is mundane! It's like a routine that doesn't have anything special or exciting.

👶 For kids: Something that is mundane is like what you do every day. Like eating breakfast or going to school. It's not super exciting!

More Examples

2

She found the daily commute to work to be incredibly mundane.

3

The movie was a bit boring because the plot was so mundane.

How It's Used

General

"Often used to describe everyday activities."

Literature

"Used to contrast the ordinary with the extraordinary."

Synonyms & Antonyms

From Latin *mundanus* meaning "of the world, worldly," related to *mundus* meaning "world." It evolved to describe things of this earthly world, as opposed to the spiritual or celestial.

Used since the 16th century, its meaning has consistently related to the earthly and everyday aspects of life.

Memory tip

Think of the *mundus* (world) being *mundane* – it's all about the everyday stuff, not the extraordinary.

Word Origin

LanguageLatin
Original meaning

"of the world, worldly"

mundane tasksmundane lifemundane routinemundane detailsmundane world

Common misspellings

mondanemundaen

Usage

40%Spoken
60%Written