second banana

1. 1.

   a performer who acts as stooge to a comedian

   Synonymsstraight man

   Broaderperformer
2. 2.

   someone who serves in a subordinate capacity or plays a secondary role

   Synonymssecond fiddle

   Broadersubordinate

Questions about second banana

What does second banana mean?

second banana means "a performer who acts as stooge to a comedian". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for second banana?

Close synonyms include straight man, second fiddle. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is second banana a common word?

second banana is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.