name · noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
Received-Pronunciation:/ˈpæbləm/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
General-American:/ˈpæbl(ə)m/
General-American:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:P AE1 B L AH0 M
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
name
Meaning 1
A type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Alternative letter-case form of Pablum (“a type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, alt-of, uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Mushy, easily digested food; pap; (countable) a specific type of such food.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, broadly, uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
Something overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, countable, derogatory, figuratively, uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: pabulum, pap
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
worthless or oversimplified ideas
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: pap
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: drivel, garbage
6
noun
Meaning 6
a soft form of cereal for infants
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: cereal
History
Etymology
The name of a food supplement for malnourished infants developed in 1931 by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Mead Johnson & Company, probably a shortening of Latin pābulum (“fodder for animals; food, nourishment”), from pā(scō) (“to feed, nourish; to drive to pasture; to support; to tend”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh2- (“to protect, ward; to shepherd”)) + -bulum (suffix denoting an instrument) (from Proto-Indo-European *-dhlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix denoting an instrument or tool))), or directly from Proto-Indo-European *peh2-dhlom (from *peh2- + *-dhlom). The name was trademarked in the United States in 1932.
A variant of Pablum, the name of a food supplement for malnourished infants developed in 1931 by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Mead Johnson & Company, probably a shortening of Latin pābulum (“fodder for animals; food, nourishment”), from pā(scō) (“to feed, nourish; to drive to pasture; to support; to tend”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh2- (“to protect, ward; to shepherd”)) + -bulum (suffix denoting an instrument) (from Proto-Indo-European *-dhlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix denoting an instrument or tool))), or directly from Proto-Indo-European *peh2-dhlom (from *peh2- + *-dhlom). The name was trademarked in the United States in 1932.
Across languages
Translations
11 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Chinese Mandarin:
單調乏味 /单调乏味
(dāndiào fáwèi)
— something bland or simplistic
Finnish:
puppu
— something bland or simplistic
French:
bouillie
— something bland or simplistic
German:
Einheitsbrei
— something bland or simplistic
Polish:
banał
— something bland or simplistic
Russian:
бана́льщина
(banálʹščina)
— something bland or simplistic
Serbo-Croatian:
бана́лно̄ст
— something bland or simplistic
Serbo-Croatian:
тривија́лно̄ст
— something bland or simplistic
Serbo-Croatian:
banálnōst
— something bland or simplistic
Serbo-Croatian:
trivijálnōst
— something bland or simplistic