rite of passage
Americannoun
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Anthropology. a ceremony performed to facilitate or mark a person's change of status upon any of several highly important occasions, as at the onset of puberty or upon entry into marriage or into a clan.
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any important act or event that serves to mark a passage from one stage of life to another.
noun
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a ceremony performed in some cultures at times when an individual changes his status, as at puberty and marriage
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a significant event in a transitional period of someone's life
Etymology
Origin of rite of passage
First recorded in 1955–60
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.
"They were just going over to have a bit of fun and just doing the rite of passage that every, you know, child or teenager does. So that outcome was just devastating."
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
The trip to the Spanish resort was Taylor's first holiday abroad without her parents, an all-girl rite of passage celebration with 16 friends after leaving secondary school.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
The stores sell dresses for proms, special occasions and quinceañeras, a Latin American rite of passage celebrating a young girl’s 15th birthday and her transition to adulthood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
It was a wistful and exciting moment, a rite of passage for many privileged middle-class parents around this time of year.
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
Our after-noon on the range made more sense to me as a rite of passage that might bring us closer by making us feel we’d endured something awful together.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
