ritual
Americannoun
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an established or prescribed procedure for a religious or other rite.
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a system or collection of religious or other rites.
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observance of set forms in public worship.
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a book of rites or ceremonies.
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a book containing the offices to be used by priests in administering the sacraments and for visitation of the sick, burial of the dead, etc.
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a prescribed or established rite, ceremony, proceeding, or service.
the ritual of the dead.
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prescribed, established, or ceremonial acts or features collectively, as in religious services.
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any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner.
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a prescribed code of behavior regulating social conduct, as that exemplified by the raising of one's hat or the shaking of hands in greeting.
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Psychiatry. a specific act, as hand-washing, performed repetitively to a pathological degree, occurring as a common symptom of obsessive-compulsive neurosis.
adjective
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of the nature of or practiced as a rite or ritual.
a ritual dance.
- Synonyms:
- sacramental, formal, ceremonial
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of or relating to rites or ritual.
ritual laws.
noun
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the prescribed or established form of a religious or other ceremony
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such prescribed forms in general or collectively
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stereotyped activity or behaviour
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psychol any repetitive behaviour, such as hand-washing, performed by a person with a compulsive personality disorder
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any formal act, institution, or procedure that is followed consistently
the ritual of the law
adjective
Related Words
See ceremony.
Other Word Forms
- antiritual adjective
- proritual adjective
- ritually adverb
- unritual adjective
- unritually adverb
Etymology
Origin of ritual
First recorded in 1560–70; from Latin rītuālis, from rītu(s) rite + -ālis -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His coronation was a public show of his commitment to the Church of England and a service immersed in Christian ritual.
From BBC
Over the course of a weekend, I can lean into the ritual of it.
From Salon
It functions as a loyalty oath, one ritual in a much larger pattern of humiliation and dominance.
From Salon
In a post on X, Timothy said: "Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination."
From BBC
He endured the same ritual last year, and came to Washington with a clear understanding of the task: Whatever you say, say nothing, as Seamus Heaney put it in a famous 1975 poem.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
