ritual

1. 1.

   any customary observance or practice

   Synonymsrite

   Broadercustom

   Narrowerbetrothalmarriagerite of passage

   Partsritual dancing
2. 2.

   the prescribed procedure for conducting religious ceremonies

   Broaderpractice

   NarrowerablutioncelebrationCommunion
3. 3.

   stereotyped behavior

   Broaderhabit

1. 1.

   of or relating to or characteristic of religious rituals

   “ritual killing”
2. 2.

   of or relating to or employed in social rites or rituals

   “a ritual dance of Haiti”

   “sedate little colonial tribe with its ritual tea parties”

Other forms of ritual

plural

rituals·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about ritual

What does ritual mean?

ritual means "any customary observance or practice". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in ritual?

ritual has 3 syllables: rit-u-al. The stress falls on "rit". In IPA it is /ˈɹɪtʃuəl/.

What is another word for ritual?

Close synonyms include rite. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ritual a common word?

ritual is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.