ritual
Other forms: rituals
A ritual is a ceremony or action performed in a customary way. Your family might have a Saturday night ritual of eating a big spaghetti dinner and then taking a long walk to the ice cream shop.
As an adjective, ritual means "conforming to religious rites," which are the sacred, customary ways of celebrating a religion or culture. Different communities have different ritual practices, like meditation in Buddhism, or baptism in Christianity. We also call the ceremony itself a ritual. Although it comes from religious ceremonies, ritual can also be used for any time-honored tradition, like the Superbowl, or Mardi Gras, or Sunday morning pancake breakfast.
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the prescribed procedure for conducting religious ceremoniestypes:ablutionthe ritual washing of a priest's hands or of sacred vesselscelebration, solemnisation, solemnizationthe public performance of a sacrament or solemn ceremony with all appropriate ritualCommunion, Holy Communion, manduction, sacramental manductionthe act of participating in the celebration of the Eucharistintercommunionparticipation in Holy Communion by members of more than one church (eg Catholic and Orthodox)
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any customary observance or practicesynonyms: ritetypes:rite of passagea ritual performed in some cultures at times when an individual changes status (as from adolescence to adulthood)civil marriagea marriage performed by a government official rather than by a clergymanlove matcha marriage for love's sake; not an arranged marriageremarriagethe act of marrying again
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stereotyped behavior
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of or relating to or characteristic of religious rituals“ritual killing”
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of or relating to or employed in social rites or rituals“a ritual dance of Haiti”“"sedate little colonial tribe with its ritual tea parties"- Nadine Gordimer”
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Vocabulary lists containing ritual
A boy named Salva struggles to survive after being separated from his family in war-torn Sudan. A girl named Nya spends hours each day collecting water for her parents and sister. Their lives eventually intersect in this novel based on a true story.
This dramatic adaptation of the diary of a young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis won both a Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Hanukkah is a festival of lights that marks a historic event. Brighten up your vocabulary with these luminous words.