rite of passage

SEE SYNONYMS FOR rite of passage ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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.
any important act or event that serves to mark a passage from one stage of life to another.

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advocate
to give up possession or occupancy of.
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Origin of rite of passage

First recorded in 1955–60

Words nearby rite of passage

ritalin, ritardando, rite, rite de passage, rite of intensification, rite of passage, rite of spring, the, ritenuto, rites of passage, ritornello, ritschlian
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Words related to rite of passage

baptism, initiation, circumcision

British Dictionary definitions for rite of passage

rite of passage

rite de passage

/ (French rit də pɑsaʒ) /

noun

a ceremony performed in some cultures at times when an individual changes his status, as at puberty and marriage
a significant event in a transitional period of someone's life
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Medical definitions for rite of passage

rite of passage
[ rīt ]

n.

A ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.