Kate Chopin
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Can banter be vicious?
Banter refers to a form of jesting or to the act of exchanging joking repartee. Although the word once meant “ridicule,” and though it has a regional sense "a challenge or dare" (as in, "he performed a banter [or banner], jumping from the roof onto the snowbank"), in modern use it usually refers to a light-hearted form of wit. You would not be wrong to say that someone engages in “cruel banter,” if that is what is intended, but the word is far more often encountered in combination with modifiers such as witty, friendly, or lighthearted.
Examples of banter in a Sentence
Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2025
The movie's a big miss, but Johnson's modern version of the old David Hasselhoff beach cop gets some good lines and banters mightily with Zac Efron while carrying fridges.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 4 Oct. 2025
Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
Nobody Wants This is back for a second season, providing not only good banter, but some pretty deep questions about faith and compatibility.
—NPR, 24 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for banter
Cite this Entry
“Banter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/banter. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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banter
2 of 2 noun
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