Meaning & use
mundane
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Ordinary and dull, lacking anything exciting or unusual.
Grammar: Used before nouns or after be: a mundane job, the work is mundane.
Patterns
- a mundane task
- mundane details
She spent the day on mundane tasks like filing and answering email.
He described his mundane routine of bus, desk and sandwich.
The film turns mundane events into something touching.
adjectivebefore a nounformalliterary
Belonging to the everyday world rather than a spiritual, ideal or imaginary one.
Grammar: Often contrasts with spiritual or heavenly.
Patterns
- mundane concerns
The monk tried to rise above mundane worries.
Philosophers have long contrasted the mundane world with the divine.
Her poems link mundane life to eternal questions.
Word forms
| comparative | more mundane |
|---|---|
| superlative | most mundane |
Common combinations
- mundane task
- Washing dishes is a mundane task I do not mind.
- mundane details
- The report was full of mundane details.
- mundane existence
- He wanted to escape a mundane existence.
- mundane matters
- They talked about mundane matters such as bills and groceries.
- mundane routine
- A mundane routine can sometimes feel comforting.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ordinary
- Ordinary is neutral and not necessarily negative, whereas mundane often implies boredom.
- humdrum
- Humdrum stresses monotony and has a slightly more informal, dismissive tone than mundane.
- routine
- Routine describes something done regularly, but mundane also suggests it is unexciting.
- earthly
- Earthly matches mundane's worldly sense, but is more poetic and religious.
Opposites
Word family
- mundanely adverb
- in an ordinary, boring way
- mundaneness noun
- the quality of being ordinary
- mundanity noun
- something ordinary or dull
Commonly confused: mundane or mundain?
mundane vs mundain
This spelling is incorrect; the word is mundane, and it is unrelated to words like 'mundial' meaning worldwide in other languages.
Practice
The author turns mundane details, such as washing cups, into a gripping scene. Here mundane means:
Choose one answer.
Mundane means ordinary and unremarkable. Washing cups is not dangerous, secret or costly, so the other options do not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mundane”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.