Meaning & use
ritual
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Meanings
nouncountable
A ceremony or set of fixed actions performed for religious, cultural, or social reasons.
Grammar: Countable when naming one ceremony: a ritual; plural rituals.
Patterns
- perform a ritual
- a ritual of something
- a religious or cultural ritual
The festival begins with a ritual at sunrise.
Lighting candles is part of the evening ritual.
Each community has its own rituals for welcoming guests.
nouncountableinformalhumorous
A repeated personal action done in the same way, often for comfort or habit.
Grammar: Often informal or lightly humorous when the ceremony is small and private.
Patterns
- a morning or bedtime ritual
- a daily ritual
- go through a ritual
Her morning ritual includes tea, stretching, and five quiet minutes.
He went through his usual ritual of checking the doors twice.
Making the bed became a small ritual that started the day well.
adjectivebefore a noun
Done as part of a fixed ceremony or formal pattern.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: ritual dance; not usually predicative in careful use.
Patterns
- ritual dance or chant
- ritual sacrifice
- ritual greeting
The ritual dance marked the start of spring.
Anthropologists studied ritual gift exchange in the village.
A ritual greeting opened every formal meeting.
Word forms
| plural | rituals |
|---|
Common combinations
- morning ritual
- A short morning ritual can make the day feel organized.
- religious ritual
- The religious ritual had been passed down for generations.
- ritual sacrifice
- The exhibit explained ritual sacrifice without presenting it as entertainment.
- go through a ritual
- Before each flight, the pilots go through a safety ritual.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ceremony
- Usually public and formal; ritual can be private or even ordinary.
- rite
- Often religious or initiatory and more fixed; ritual is broader and can be cultural or personal.
- routine
- A regular sequence of actions, but without the special or symbolic meaning ritual often has.
Opposites
Word family
- ritualistic adjective
- Done like a ritual, sometimes too fixed or formal.
- ritualistically adverb
- In a fixed ceremonial way.
- rite noun
- A formal religious or ceremonial act, closely related in meaning.
Commonly confused: ritual or habit?
ritual vs habit
A habit is simply something done regularly; a ritual often has order, symbolism, or special meaning.
Practice
Which sentence uses ritual as a small repeated personal habit?
Choose one answer.
Option 1 describes a private repeated routine, which is the informal personal-habit sense. The other options are formal, religious, public, or ceremonial uses.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ritual”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.