Word.ws English Dictionary

banister

/ˈbænɪstɚ/

banister noun: the rail on the side of a staircase that a person's hand holds onto.

banister: the rail on the side of a staircase that a person's hand holds onto
Image: Sinikka Halme, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

banister (plural banisters)

  1. The rail on the side of a staircase that a person's hand holds onto.
    • wooden banister
    • polished banister
    Synonyms:
    handrail
  2. One of the vertical supports of such a handrail.
    Synonyms:
    baluster

Verb

banister (third-person singular simple present banisters, present participle banistering, simple past and past participle banistered)

  1. (transitive) To construct a banister.
  2. (transitive) To act as a banister.

Proper noun capitalized: Banister

Banister (countable and uncountable, plural Banisters)

  1. A surname originating as an occupation for a maker of baskets.
  2. An unincorporated community and district in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, United States.

banister meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Punjabi

banister in Bengali

সিঁড়ির রেলিং, পিলার

banister in Malayalam

railing, handrail, rail
കൈവരി, കയ്യിരി, കയ്യൂരി, കയ്യേരി, കോണിപ്പടിയുടെ കൈവരി, ചുറ്റഴി

banister in Kannada

ಕಟಕಟೆ

banister in Punjabi

banister, handrail
ਡੰਡਾ ḍaṇḍā
More languagesFewer languages
banister in Arabic
دَرَابْزُون darābzūn
banister in Persian
طارمی târami

Examples of banister in a sentence

  • lean on the banister
  • She slid down the wooden banister like a child.
  • He grasped the banister as he climbed the stairs.

Synonyms of banister

Forms of banister

Noun
pluralbanisters
alternative formbannister
Verb
third-person singular presentbanisters
present participlebanistering
past participlebanistered
pastbanistered
Proper noun
pluralBanisters

Plural of banister: banisters

Origin of banister

Alteration of earlier barrester, ballester, corruptions of baluster.

English and Norman surname, variant of Bannister.

Questions about banister

What does banister mean?
Banister means the rail on the side of a staircase that a person's hand holds onto.
What is banister in Bengali?
Banister in Bengali is সিঁড়ির রেলিং, পিলার. See Banister meaning in Bengali.
How do you use banister in a sentence?
lean on the banister
What part of speech is banister?
Banister can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce banister?
Banister is pronounced /ˈbænɪstɚ/.
What is the plural of banister?
The plural of banister is banisters.

Words near banister in the dictionary

  1. banishment
  2. banishments
  3. banisht
  4. banishèd
  5. Banisilan
  6. banister
  7. banistered
  8. banisterine
  9. banistering
  10. banisterioid
  11. banisterioids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: banister (page history and authors); Banister (page history and authors); banister (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); banister (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); banister (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਡੰਡਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-banister.ogg.

Cite this entry: “banister.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/banister. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.