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ritual

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

A rite; a repeated set of actions.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

richoouhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹɪtʃuəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A rite; a repeated set of actions, especially in religious contexts.

adjective

  1. Related to a rite or repeated set of actions.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A rite; a repeated set of actions, especially in religious contexts.

Used this way, ritual is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Religion/spirituality
  • Historical writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use ritual

  • “They carried out the ritual carefully.”noun
  • “They performed the ritual lighting of the candles.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Rite / related

jewish ritual

Customary

ritual practice

Other combinations

religious ritualritual murderritual processritual purityritual acts

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • ritual killingnounCompound term

    The act of killing (an animal or person) in order to propitiate a deity.

  • ritual dancingnounCompound term

    A dance that is part of a religious ritual.

  • ritual dancenounCompound term

    A dance that is part of a religious ritual.

  • religious ritualnounCompound term

    A ceremony having religious meaning.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.