humdrum
/ˈhʌmdɹʌm/
humdrum adjective: lacking variety or excitement; dull; boring.
Adjective
humdrum (comparative more humdrum, superlative most humdrum)
- Lacking variety or excitement; dull; boring.
- In the valley there would have been feasting and celebration, and then dancing at the wedding, and afterwards the turmoil of a brief romance turning to humdrum married life, the cares of her house, the cares of children, anxiety, fret, illness, trouble, the day-by-day routine of growing old.1952, Daphne Du Maurier, “Monte Verità”, in The Apple Tree
- He suggested cusk, because he knew they would have it. She had never heard of cusk. “Doesn't it sound exotic!” she said. “Exotic indeed!” he laughed, and almost told her what a humdrum fish it really was, but stopped himself.1999, Lucy Honig, The Truly Needy And Other Stories, University of Pittsburgh Press, →ISBN, page 89
- Synonyms:
- banal, basic, mindless, beat, blah, commonplace, bland, boring, cold, colourless
Noun
humdrum (countable and uncountable, plural humdrums)
- The quality of lacking variety or excitement.
- I think it helped distract us from the dry, humdrum, and heat of the here and now.2010, Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest
- A stupid fellow.
- So, after settling it that Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were complete country humdrums, the daughters hoydens, the sons awkward half-dandies, and the company altogether any thing but agreeable, she came to a conclusion she had done fifty times before, that the country was not like London.1834, Elizabeth Frances Dagley, The Young Seer, Or Early Searches Into Futurity, page 103
humdrum meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
humdrum in Tamil
- உற்சாகமில்லாத, கற்பனைத்திறனற்ற, உற்சாகமின்மை
humdrum in Urdu
- humdrum, offended
- اچاٹ učāṭ
humdrum in Malayalam
- സവിശേഷതയില്ലാത്ത, മുഷിപ്പനായ, ജഡമായ, സാധാരണയായ, വിരസമായ
humdrum in Kannada
- ಸ್ವಾರಸ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲದ, ನಿಸ್ಸಾರ, ಒಂದೇ ಬಗೆಯ, ನೀರಸ, ಅತಿ ಸಾಧಾರಣ, ಸಪ್ಪೆಯಾದ
More languagesFewer languages
- humdrum in Vietnamese
- nhàm chán, buồn tẻ
Examples of humdrum in a sentence
- The more he basked in golden dreams the drabber seemed his humdrum life behind the bank counter.
- How in this humdrum worldkin of ours did mortal men ever come to do this madness?
- His life took on a quotidian humdrum.
Synonyms of humdrum
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of humdrum
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more humdrum |
| superlative | most humdrum |
| Noun | |
| plural | humdrums |
Origin of humdrum
Sound-symbolic, possible reduplication of hum, 1550s.
Words formed from humdrum
Questions about humdrum
- What does humdrum mean?
- Humdrum means lacking variety or excitement; dull; boring.
- What is humdrum in Tamil?
- Humdrum in Tamil is உற்சாகமில்லாத, கற்பனைத்திறனற்ற, உற்சாகமின்மை. See Humdrum meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is humdrum?
- Humdrum can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce humdrum?
- Humdrum is pronounced /ˈhʌmdɹʌm/.
Words near humdrum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: humdrum (page history and authors); humdrum (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اچاٹ (Urdu) (page history and authors); humdrum (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); humdrum (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-humdrum.ogg.
Cite this entry: “humdrum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/humdrum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.