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Acumen is the ability to make quick decisions and keen, precise judgments.
When you claim that something is banal, you do not like it because you think it is ordinary, dull, commonplace, and boring.
A chimerical idea is unrealistic, imaginary, or unlikely to be fulfilled.
A curio is an object that is very old or unusual; thus, it is viewed as interesting.
A distinctive trait of someone sets them apart from everyone else; it is what makes them different or unique.
Weather that is dreary tends to be depressing and gloomy; a situation or person that is dreary tends to be boring or uninteresting.
If you describe a person, group, or civilization as effete, you mean it is weak, exhausted, powerless, unproductive, and/or corrupt.
Ennui is the feeling of being bored, tired, and dissatisfied with life.
Someone who is erudite is steeped in knowledge because they have read and studied extensively.
If you think something, such as a statement or idea, is fatuous, you consider it stupid or extremely silly; a fatuous hope is unrealistic.
Hackneyed words, images, ideas or sayings have been used so often that they no longer seem interesting or amusing.
Something humdrum is dull, boring, or tiresome.
Someone who has had an illustrious professional career is celebrated and outstanding in their given field of expertise.
If you describe someone’s behavior as inane, you think it is completely stupid or without much meaning.
Something insipid is dull, boring, and has no interesting features; for example, insipid food has no taste or little flavor.
If you describe ideas as jejune, you are saying they are childish and uninteresting; the adjective jejune also describes those having little experience, maturity, or knowledge.
Something that is mediocre is just average or adequate in quality.
A monotonous activity is so repetitious that it quickly becomes boring and dull.
Something that is mundane is very ordinary and not interesting or exciting, especially because it happens very often.
Something that is notional exists only as an idea or in theory—not in reality.
An ornate object is heavily or excessively decorated with complicated shapes and patterns.
A pantheon is also all the collective gods of a given people.
When someone exhibits profundity, they display great intellectual depth and understanding; profundity can also be the depth or complexity of something.
Something prosaic is dull, boring, and ordinary.
Something that is quotidian is done on a daily basis.
People or things that are resplendent are beautiful, bright, and impressive in appearance.
A sagacious person is wise, intelligent, and has the ability to make good practical decisions.
A scintillating conversation, speech, or performance is brilliantly clever, interesting, and lively.
A stupendous event or accomplishment is amazing, astonishing, or simply spectacular.
Something that is superlative, such as an act or deed, is excellent, outstanding, or simply the best.
If you are suffering from tedium, you are bored.
A trite remark or idea is so overused that it is no longer interesting or novel.
Something that is unadorned is not made more attractive with ornament or decoration.
Something uncanny is very strange, unnatural, or highly unusual.
Something vapid is dull, boring, and/or tiresome.
Something that is vintage is first-rate and of excellent quality; it is often of a past time and is a classic representative of its kind.
Adj.
pedestrian
puh-DES-tree-uhn
Context
My brother has decided to become a banker, which seems to me like a boring, unimaginative, and pedestrian career. He has always been artistic, so I imagined his becoming a painter or a sculptor, rather than working a pedestrian, nine-to-five, everyday job. I think he wanted the financial security that is more easily attained through pedestrian, commonplace, run-of-the-mill work.
Quiz:Try again!
When is something considered pedestrian?
PedestrianPedestrian Immanuel Kant, the great German philosopher, was such a pedestrianpedestrian because he would take the same walk at the same time each and every day, each and every day of his life.
Examples
Spitzer also happens to be only the latest of a number of top-level politicians in the Northeast to be brought low by the most pedestrian lapses of judgment.
—
Epicurious
Surprising to me, that from this soup cookbook, the editors chose to showcase such an insipid and pedestrian recipe without explaining that it is simply one part of a weight loss diet.
—
Epicurious
Bruno Lafont, the boss of Lafarge, proudly indicates a photograph of an impossibly thin pedestrian bridge built with one such miracle product.
—
The Economist
The predicted models also indicated that the total pedestrian casualties were significantly correlated with the total population of the zone, number of four-leg intersections, population density, and total number of students enrolled in elementary schools in the considered zones.
—
BNET
The adjective pedestrian refers to the place where everyone is “on foot,” that is, the common place where people or pedestrians usually walk; hence, the heavily-used path would be the pedestrian, or ordinary, one.
Word Constellation
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Related Words
banal ·
dreary ·
effete ·
ennui ·
fatuous ·
hackneyed ·
humdrum+ ·
inane ·
insipid ·
jejune ·
mediocre ·
monotonous+ ·
mundane ·
prosaic ·
quotidian ·
tedium ·
trite ·
unadorned ·
vapid ·
acumen ·
chimerical ·
curio ·
distinctive+ ·
erudite ·
illustrious+ ·
notional ·
ornate ·
pantheon ·
profundity ·
resplendent ·
sagacious ·
scintillating ·
stupendous+ ·
superlative+ ·
uncanny+ ·
vintage+ ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
pedestrian
n
→
someone who walks rather than rides
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.