Meaning & use
ritualized
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“ritualized” is a form of “ritualize”.
Meanings
adjectivecomparableformal
Carried out in a fixed, repeated pattern, like a ceremony, often with symbolic importance.
Grammar: Appears before a noun or after a verb: a ritualized greeting; the process was highly ritualized.
Patterns
- ritualized behavior
- highly ritualized
The two companies followed a ritualized exchange of business cards.
The family's ritualized Sunday dinner never changed in decades.
Animal fights are often ritualized so that neither animal gets badly hurt.
verbtransitiveformal
Past tense and past participle of ritualize: turned an action into a fixed ritual.
Grammar: Takes an object: they ritualized the handshake.
Patterns
- ritualize something
- be ritualized
The school ritualized the first day with a welcome walk through a flower arch.
Over time, they ritualized their weekly phone call.
The ceremony was ritualized after centuries of repetition.
Word forms
| base | ritualize |
|---|---|
| third person singular | ritualizes |
| past tense | ritualized |
| -ing form | ritualizing |
Common combinations
- highly ritualized
- The courtroom is a highly ritualized setting.
- ritualized behavior
- Ritualized behavior in birds includes courtship dances.
- ritualized greeting
- Their ritualized greeting involved a bow and a handshake.
- ritualized violence
- Researchers studied ritualized violence between rival groups.
- ritualized form
- The debate took a ritualized form with set speeches.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ceremonial
- Ceremonial describes something that belongs to an official ceremony, while ritualized describes ordinary actions that have become fixed and symbolic.
- formulaic
- Formulaic suggests predictable and lacking originality, which is often negative, whereas ritualized may be neutral.
- routine
- Routine means regular and habitual with no special meaning, whereas ritualized suggests a symbolic or ceremonial quality.
Opposites
Word family
- ritual noun
- a fixed set of actions performed on a regular basis
- ritualize verb
- to make something into a ritual
- ritualism noun
- strict attachment to ritual
- ritualistic adjective
- relating to or like ritual
Commonly confused: ritualized or ritualized vs. ritualistic?
ritualized vs ritualized vs. ritualistic
Ritualized means made into a ritual, while ritualistic means characteristic of ritual and often suggests something strange or strict.
Practice
Their evening tea became so ___ that missing it felt like breaking a promise.
Choose one answer.
Ritualized means turned into a fixed, meaningful ritual. Accidental, spontaneous and hurried all suggest the opposite of a regular set habit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ritualized”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.