Word.ws English Dictionary

banter

/ˈbæntə//ˈbæntɚ/

banter noun: sharp, good-humoured, playful, typically spontaneous conversation.

Noun

banter (uncountable)

  1. Sharp, good-humoured, playful, typically spontaneous conversation.
    • I was elected to the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society, and made it a point to attend every one of its meetings, but I always felt tongue-tied. Dr. Oldfield once said to me, 'You talk to me quite all right, but why is it that you never open your lips at a committee meeting? You are a...1927–1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XVIII, in The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Ahmedabad...
    • This bullying continuum illustrates the progressive escalation from harmless banter to bullying and criminal behaviours.2007, Evelyn M. Field, Bully Blocking, page 17
    Synonyms:
    pleasantry, raillery
  2. Good-humoured bits of monologue and/or conversational prompts used in any of a wide range of occupations that must frequently interact with the public (for example, store clerks, salespersons, nurses).

Verb

banter (third-person singular simple present banters, present participle bantering, simple past and past participle bantered)

  1. (intransitive) To engage in banter or playful conversation.
  2. (intransitive) To play or do something amusing.
  3. (transitive) To tease (someone) mildly.
    • Here comes the muſty trader, running over vvith remonſtrances. I muſt banter the cit.1760 January 28 (first performance), [Samuel] Foote, The Minor, a Comedy. […], London: […] J. Coote, […]; G[eorge] Kearsly, […]; T[homas] Davies, […], published 1760, →OCLC, Act II, page 56
    • Hag-ridden by my own fancy all night, and then bantered on my haggard looks the next day.1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    kid, wind up, chaff
  4. (transitive) To joke about; to ridicule (a trait, habit, etc.).
    • June 1804, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
      If they banter your regularity, order, and love of study, banter in return their neglect of them.
  5. (transitive) To delude or trick; to play a prank upon.
    • [W]e diverted ourſelves vvith bantering ſeveral other poor Scholars, vvith hopes of being at leaſt his Lordſhip's Chaplains and putting on a Scarf; […]1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC...
  6. (Southern, US, Western, colloquial, transitive) To challenge to a match.
  7. (UK, dialectal) To haggle; cheapen the price.

banter meaning in Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

banter in Bengali

পরিহাস, হালকা মেজাজে রসিকতা করা

banter in Malayalam

repartee, witty conversation, wordplay
കളിവാക്ക്, നർമ്മോക്തി, ലഘുപരിഹാസം, കളിവചനം, ചുട്ട മറുപടി, ചുടുചൊല്ല്
joke, jest, quip
കളിവാക്കു പറയുക, കളി പറയുക, കളിവാക്കു പറഞ്ഞു പരിഹസിക്കുക, തമാശപറയുക, നർമ്മംപറയുക, നേരമ്പോക്കു പ്രയോഗിക്കുക

banter in Kannada

ಗೇಲಿಮಾತು, ಕಾಲೆಳೆ

Examples of banter in a sentence

  • You are a drone.' I appreciated the banter.1927–1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XVIII, in The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in...
  • Sweeting was bantered about his stature, he was a little man, a mere boy in height and breadth compared with the athletic Malone, […]1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Levitical”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC...

All 26 example sentences with banter

Synonyms of banter

All synonyms of banter

Forms of banter

third-person singular presentbanters
present participlebantering
past participlebantered
pastbantered

Origin of banter

1670s as verb, 1680s as noun. The origin is unknown, possibly from London street slang; ostensibly as *bant + -er (frequentative suffix). Possibly an Anglo-Gaelicism from the Irish bean (“woman”), so that "banter" means "talk of women."

Words formed from banter

Words that rhyme with banter

Questions about banter

What does banter mean?
Banter means sharp, good-humoured, playful, typically spontaneous conversation.
What is banter in Bengali?
Banter in Bengali is পরিহাস, হালকা মেজাজে রসিকতা করা. See Banter meaning in Bengali.
How do you use banter in a sentence?
You are a drone.' I appreciated the banter.
What part of speech is banter?
Banter can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce banter?
Banter is pronounced /ˈbæntə/ (UK).

Words near banter in the dictionary

  1. banted
  2. Banteer
  3. Banten
  4. banteng
  5. bantengs
  6. banter
  7. bantered
  8. banterer
  9. banterers
  10. bantering
  11. banteringly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: banter (page history and authors); banter (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); banter (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); banter (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-banter.wav, en-us-banter.ogg, en-au-banter.ogg.

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