Lexic.us

Definition of Ritual

1. Noun. Any customary observance or practice.

2. Adjective. Of or relating to or characteristic of religious rituals. "Ritual killing"

3. Noun. The prescribed procedure for conducting religious ceremonies.

4. Adjective. Of or relating to or employed in social rites or rituals. "Sedate little colonial tribe with its ritual tea parties"

5. Noun. Stereotyped behavior.

Definition of Ritual

1. a. Of or pertaining to rites or ritual; as, ritual service or sacrifices; the ritual law.

2. n. A prescribed form of performing divine service in a particular church or communion; as, the Jewish ritual.

Definition of Ritual

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

2. Noun. rite; a repeated set of actions ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Ritual

1. a system of rites [n -S]

Medical Definition of Ritual

1. In psychiatry and psychology, any psychomotor activity (e.g., morbid handwashing) sustained by an individual to relieve anxiety or forestall its development; typically seen in obsessive-compulsive neurosis. Origin: L. Ritualis, fr. Ritus, rite (05 Mar 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Ritual

ritonavirs ritornel ritornelli ritornello ritornellos ritornels rits ritt ritted ritter

ritter disease ritters ritting rittmannite ritts ritual (current term) ritual Ten Commandments ritual abuses ritual dance ritual dancing

ritual killing ritual servitude ritualic ritualisation ritualise ritualised ritualises ritualising ritualism

Literary usage of Ritual

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck (1908)
"Rationalism in lending its own interpretation to the ritual, deprived it of ... In the Evangelical Churches outside of Germany books of ritual were drawn up ..."

2. The Theology of the Old Testament by Andrew Bruce Davidson, Stewart Dingwall Fordyce Salmond (1904)
"ritual use of the Term. From Atonement, as it appears in the extra-ritual books of the Old Testament, we pass now to the ritual atonement. ..."

3. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"In this latter shape they might still continue to attach themselves to the ritual of which they had originally formed an integral part. ..."

4. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"In this latter shape they might still continue to attach themselves to the ritual of which they had originally formed an integral part. ..."

5. The Cults of the Greek States by Lewis Richard Farnell (1907)
"In this record it is the page of primitive peasant-ritual unfolded to us that is most attractive to the anthropologist. The running and the pursuit of the ..."

6. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1913)
"Writers distinguish between the rubrics of the Breviary, the Missal, and the ritual, according as the matter regulated concerns the Divine Office, the Mass, ..."

Other Resources: