rite
[rahyt]
- a formal or ceremonial act or procedure prescribed or customary in religious or other solemn use: rites of baptism; sacrificial rites.
- a particular form or system of religious or other ceremonial practice: the Roman rite.
- (often initial capital letter) a liturgy or liturgical system, especially one of the historical versions of the Eucharistic service: the Anglican Rite.
- (sometimes initial capital letter) Eastern Church, Western Church. a division or differentiation of churches based on liturgical practice.
- any customary observance or practice: the rite of afternoon tea.
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Origin of rite
1275–1325; Middle English (< Old French rit(e)) < Latin rītus
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comSynonym study
1. See ceremony.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
observance, formality, ritual, sacrament, custom, liturgy, occasion, procedure, celebration, form, service, solemnity, ordinance, practice, communion, act, ceremonialExamples from the Web for rite
Contemporary Examples
In the neighborhoods they grow up in, prison is a rite of passage and being a street gangster is a viable career choice.
For anyone whose political sympathies lie left of center, discovering and reading Chomsky is a rite of passage.
A rite of passage solely reserved for adolescent girls, the painful custom is believed to be as old as the local creation myth.
Doing well at the Gridiron is a rite of passage that not everybody survives.
Walgreens and Rite Aid—seeing the glowing publicity CVS is benefitting from—will quickly follow suit.
The War on Smoking Didn’t Save My Mother’s Life, but It Could Save Many MoreJoe Concha
February 5, 2014
Historical Examples
I believe it is the place where the rite of circumcision is performed.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
I will yield nothing, whether in discipline, or in rite, or in dogma.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
They are going up to the city for the Mohammedan rite of circumcision.
Out-of-Doors in the Holy LandHenry Van Dyke
Therefore the solemn process, rite, and ceremony of purification had to be performed.
A Great ManArnold Bennett
All his people had gathered in a loose circle, as though attending a rite.
Houlihan's EquationWalt Sheldon
rite
- a formal act or procedure prescribed or customary in religious ceremoniesfertility rites; the rite of baptism
- a particular body of such acts or procedures, esp of a particular Christian Churchthe Latin rite
- a Christian Churchthe Greek rite
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin rītus religious ceremony
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for rite
n.
early 14c., from Latin ritus "religious observance or ceremony, custom, usage," perhaps from PIE root *re(i)- "to count, number" (cf. Greek arithmos "number," Old English rim "number;" see read (v.)). Rite of passage (1909) is translated from French rite de passage, coined by French anthropologist Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper