ritual
adjective
, -chəl; ˈrich-wəl\
Definition of ritual
(Entry 1 of 2)
ritual
nounDefinition of ritual (Entry 2 of 2)
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Synonyms for ritual
Synonyms: Noun
custom, fashion, habit, habitude, pattern, practice (also practise), second nature, trick, way, wont
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Examples of ritual in a Sentence
Noun
The priest will perform the ritual. He was buried simply, without ceremony or ritual. the daily ritual of preparing breakfast His day-to-day life is based on ritual.
Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
In its final moments the film turns the ritual slaughter of a beast into the ritual slaughter of a man. — Kyle Smith, National Review, "The Greatest War Movie Ever Made," 10 Aug. 2019 Then the community gathers near the house of the head priest and sings ritual songs while drinking and dancing. — Washington Post, "AP Photos: Tribe in northeast India prays for good harvest," 12 June 2019 The only country where this happens In the ritual response to mass shootings, America’s moral compass is a satirical website, the Onion. — Tim Fernholz, Quartz, "America’s mass shootings are a political choice," 6 Aug. 2019 The test strips are actually urine test strips, according to Baker, and will be simple to use and fit in with the ritual heroin users go through before injecting their drug. — Jon Kelvey, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, "In effort to reduce fatal overdoses, Carroll County to deploy strips to test drugs for fentanyl," 6 Aug. 2019 Large buildings were discovered at the site, which include places for public and ritual use. — Fox News, "Huge 9,000-year-old Stone Age settlement, one of the largest in the world, discovered in Israel," 17 July 2019 That means reversal of Scruton’s ritual humiliation — and equally condign sanctions against the man who willfully deceived his readers and the public about Scruton’s views. — Kyle Smith, National Review, "Where’s the Outrage at the Smear of Roger Scruton?," 17 July 2019 On the suggestion of the anthropologists, Vargas Llosa offered a tinkay, a ritual offering of coca leaves and cane liquor. — Rachel Nolan, Harper's magazine, "A Jagged Scrap of History," 24 June 2019 The Israel Antiquities Authority revealed that archaeologists also discovered two ritual baths, or mikvaot, dating to the early 20th century. — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, "Hebrew Inscription Emerges From Ruins of the Great Synagogue of Vilna," 24 July 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
The sources of its power are in ritual, repetition, restatement, rubbing your nose in it; in a complexity that becomes—on the 10th or 10,000th listen—incantatory. — James Parker, The Atlantic, "The Persistent Complexity of Tool," 24 Aug. 2019 Generations of students have participated in the ritual. — Chicago Tribune Staff, chicagotribune.com, "Daywatch: CTU group’s Venezuela trip slammed as ‘propaganda tour,’ a ‘nightmare’ year for Illinois farmers and other things to know to start your day," 19 Aug. 2019 Three times a year, the sultan of Yogyakarta, an ancient Javanese city, blesses his people with offerings of food in a ritual that mixes Hindu symbolism with Islamic beliefs. — The Economist, "A Javanese sultan wants his daughter to succeed him. His people object," 17 Aug. 2019 Many of the pieces in the show revel in a ritual of work and craft that reveals the hand of the artists. — Darryl Ratcliff, Dallas News, "Latina artists in Dallas showcase 'were told ‘no,’ and they triumphed anyway’," 25 July 2019 Hundreds of thousands of people once converged on a remote site in upstate New York to engage in a mass ritual marked by a wide range of unusual behaviors. — Martin Finucane, BostonGlobe.com, "Archeologists are examining a famous New York ritual gathering site: Woodstock," 25 June 2019 Visit Scone Palace where, for hundreds of years, monarchs of Scotland were crowned in a ritual centered around the Stone of Scone, an oblong block also known as the Stone of Destiny. — National Geographic, "Scotland Private Expedition," 12 June 2019 Alex Mar, the author of the 2016 memoir Witches of America, takes part in a Samhain ritual on the day in October when the veil between worlds thins and the dead can reach out and touch you. — Longreads, "Demonology: A Woman’s Right to Fury," 10 June 2019 Only a small group of Tamalpais High School’s 1,600 students take part in this ritual of brash high jinks, bluster and teenage torment. — Rachel Swan, SFChronicle.com, "‘Hook up with an eighth grader’: Mill Valley high school students in hot water over to-do list," 7 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ritual.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for ritual
ritual
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of ritual
(Entry 1 of 2)
ritual
nounEnglish Language Learners Definition of ritual (Entry 2 of 2)
See the full definition for ritual in the English Language Learners Dictionary
ritual
noun
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