ban
/ˈbæn/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.55 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To prohibit; to interdict; to proscribe; to forbid or block from participation.
Transitive verb
verb
To anathematize; to pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; to place under a ban.
Transitive verb
verb
To curse; to utter curses or maledictions.
noun
A prohibition.
noun
A public proclamation or edict; also, a summons by public proclamation, and in early use especially a summons to arms.
Example Sentences
- "Bare feet are banned in this establishment."
- "To whom the goodly earth and air Are banned"
- "Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years."
- "No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again."
- "Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Sunday banning the sale at grocery checkouts of all plastic bags, regardless of thickness."
- "They will curse and ban[…]even into the deep pit of hell, all that gainsay their appetite."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English bannen (“to summon; to banish; to curse”), partly from Old English bannan (“to summon, command, proclaim, call out”), from Proto-West Germanic *bannan; and partly from Old Norse banna (“to prohibit; to curse”), both from Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to proclaim, to order; to summon; to ban; to curse, forbid”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂-new-ti ~ bʰh₂-n̥w-énti, innovative nasal-infixed zero-grade athematic present of *bʰeh₂- (“to say”). Cognate with Dutch bannen (“to ban, exile, discard”), German bannen (“to exile, to exorcise, captivate, excommunicate”), Swedish banna (“to ban, scold”), Vedic Sanskrit भन॑ति (bhánati), Armenian բան (ban) and perhaps Albanian banoj (“to reside, dwell”). See also banal, abandon.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈbæn/