Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being bland; mildness; gentleness; soothingness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state or quality of being bland.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state, quality, or characteristic of being bland.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of being bland and gracious or ingratiating in manner
  • noun the trait of exhibiting no personal embarrassment or concern
  • noun lacking any distinctive or interesting taste property

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

bland +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • It is opposed to what it calls the blandness and crassness of the modern world.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2010

  • A check-the-boxes approach to creativity is more likely to result in blandness and failure.

    Disney’s Iger Shows Up The Street 2009

  • But she managed to school her expression for blandness, averting her eyes slightly to stare at a tapestry.

    Tempted by Your Touch JEN HOLLING 2002

  • But she managed to school her expression for blandness, averting her eyes slightly to stare at a tapestry.

    Tempted by Your Touch JEN HOLLING 2002

  • But she managed to school her expression for blandness, averting her eyes slightly to stare at a tapestry.

    Tempted by Your Touch JEN HOLLING 2002

  • But she managed to school her expression for blandness, averting her eyes slightly to stare at a tapestry.

    Tempted by Your Touch JEN HOLLING 2002

  • It’s this ‘parsnip policy’ that, arguably, imbues ELT books with a certain blandness – what Mario Rinvolucri once characterised as “the soft, fudgey, sub-journalistic, woman’s magaziney world of EFLese course materials” (1999, p. 14).

    June « 2010 « An A-Z of ELT 2010

  • It’s this ‘parsnip policy’ that, arguably, imbues ELT books with a certain blandness – what Mario Rinvolucri once characterised as “the soft, fudgey, sub-journalistic, woman’s magaziney world of EFLese course materials” (1999, p. 14).

    T is for Taboo « An A-Z of ELT 2010

  • He has sought to turn his everyman image—some call it blandness—into a virtue, saying these are serious times.

    Pawlenty's Homespun Tale Neil King Jr. 2011

  • They floated, and she began to suspect their blandness was a form of turtle happiness, or at least contentment, from the way they blinked their eyes in the sun, and continued to float.

    Something Unpredictable Barbara Chepaitis 2003

Comments

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  • Jose Saramago's account of a city laid low by a mysterious epidemic which causes all of its victims to lose their ability to taste their food.

    April 3, 2008

  • Heh-heh-heh.

    April 3, 2008