In dictionaries there are multiple pronunciatioms, like bu-NAL (rhyming with “canal’). Others are BAY-nul (rhyming with “anal”) and bu-NAHL (the last syllable rhymes with “doll”). Merriam-Webster’s also lists bay-NAL (the last syllable is accented and rhymes with “pal”).
How do you pronounce it?
119 votes
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
I'm probably going to be the only one who doesn't know what this word even is...
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
Rhymes with doll. Never heard of it rhyming with anal haha. But I have heard it rhyme with canal.
pomegranate / 3983 posts
I think I say it most like canal although maybe slightly like the fourth one. The doll version sounds British to me. 
grapefruit / 4089 posts
I don't know what it means, but I totally read it as rhyming with anal, lol.
pear / 1697 posts
Most like rhymes with doll, but, I say the first syllable more like bə than bu (sort of halfway between beh and buh).
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
Bay-nul/ nal. I think I say "nal" in my head, but repetitively I say "nul" out loud.
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
@ladybee: @Bao: boring, uninteresting. The shopkeeper lived a banal existence; nothing remarkable ever happened to her.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
Rhymes with doll. I think this was one of those SAT words.
eggplant / 11716 posts
My whole life I have only heard this pronounced as rhyming with anal. But tonight on NPR I heard David Fincher say buh-nahl. So I looked it up and found that they are all "accepted" pronunciations. But how strange?! How can we have this word in the English language that has no correct pronunciation?
Maybe its regional. Anyway, bay-nul for life over here.
pear / 1586 posts
I say it as rhyming with anal.
ETA- the above sentence is so awkward!
cantaloupe / 6164 posts
@Anagram: so strange!
Another anal over here. 
Never heard it any other way!
eggplant / 11824 posts
Rhyming with "doll". Buh-nall.
ETA: I don't think I've ever heard it as rhyming with anal. If i did, I would have assumed they said something else/a different word. Only ever heard it as somewhere between doll and canal.
pomegranate / 3706 posts
I've heard it 2 ways: rhyming with "doll" and with "anal." Have never heard it pronounced to rhyme with "canal" though.
pomegranate / 3533 posts
I voted "canal"...but I think the last syllable rhyming with "doll" may be more correct?
honeydew / 7091 posts
Rhyming with doll - how funny that there are so many accepted pronunciations! English is a ridiculous language
eggplant / 11716 posts
Words like this drive the English teacher in me crazy. Don't even get me started on the day a Science teacher was trying to teach the difference between homogenous and homogeneous.
grapefruit / 4355 posts
I pronounce it as rhyming with anal (and I honestly can't recall ever hearing it said another way).
clementine / 880 posts
This was one of the vocab words in my AP english class and for some reason our class really thought it was hilarious to rhyme it with anal and our english teacher insisted that was incorrect which made us do it even more. Always think of that when i hear the word. My teacher preferred the canal rhyming pronunciation
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