rite of passage

SEE MORE 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.

Origin of rite of passage

First recorded in 1955–60

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for rite of passage

baptism, initiation, circumcision

British Dictionary definitions for rite of passage

rite of passage

rite de passage

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

rite of passage in Medicine

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.