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RITUAL
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Stereotyped behavior
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("ritual" is a kind of...):
habit; use ((psychology) an automatic pattern of behavior in reaction to a specific situation; may be inherited or acquired through frequent repetition)
Derivation:
ritual (of or relating to or employed in social rites or rituals)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any customary observance or practice
Synonyms:
rite; ritual
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("ritual" is a kind of...):
custom; usage; usance (accepted or habitual practice)
Meronyms (parts of "ritual"):
ceremonial dance; ritual dance; ritual dancing (a dance that is part of a religious ritual)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ritual"):
betrothal; espousal (the act of becoming betrothed or engaged)
marriage; marriage ceremony; wedding (the act of marrying; the nuptial ceremony)
rite of passage (a ritual performed in some cultures at times when an individual changes status (as from adolescence to adulthood))
Derivation:
ritual (of or relating to or employed in social rites or rituals)
ritualize (make or evolve into a ritual)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The prescribed procedure for conducting religious ceremonies
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("ritual" is a kind of...):
pattern; practice (a customary way of operation or behavior)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ritual"):
ablution (the ritual washing of a priest's hands or of sacred vessels)
celebration; solemnisation; solemnization (the public performance of a sacrament or solemn ceremony with all appropriate ritual)
Communion; Holy Communion; manduction; sacramental manduction (the act of participating in the celebration of the Eucharist)
Derivation:
ritual (of or relating to or characteristic of religious rituals)
ritualize (make or evolve into a ritual)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of or relating to or employed in social rites or rituals
Example:
sedate little colonial tribe with its ritual tea parties
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
rite (any customary observance or practice)
Derivation:
rite (any customary observance or practice)
ritual (stereotyped behavior)
ritual (any customary observance or practice)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of or relating to or characteristic of religious rituals
Example:
ritual killing
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
religious rite (an established ceremony prescribed by a religion)
Derivation:
rite (an established ceremony prescribed by a religion)
ritual (the prescribed procedure for conducting religious ceremonies)
Context examples:
He and his colleagues argue that direct evidence in the form of teeth, bones and artifacts associated with the burial, as well as inferences from the evidence as to what time of year the children died and were buried, could lead to new thinking about how early societies were structured, how they viewed death and the importance of rituals associated with death and what stresses they faced in trying to survive.
(Archaeologists discover remains of Ice-Age infants in Alaska, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Other symptoms include: • Trouble reading social cues and recognizing other people's feelings • Having strange movements or mannerisms • Problems with motor skills • Avoiding eye contact • Having rituals • Being sensitive to certain lights, sounds, textures, or tastes
(Asperger Syndrome, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)
A team of academics from the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, observed the courtship rituals and sequenced the DNA from nearly 300 butterflies to find out how much of the genome was responsible for their mating behaviour.
(Butterflies are genetically wired to choose a mate that looks just like them, University of Cambridge)
With OCD, the thoughts and rituals cause distress and get in the way of your daily life.
(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)
Archaeologists from the University of Granada have carried out excavations in the Biniadris Cave located on the Balearic Island of Menorca, uncovering enigmatic funeral rituals.
(Hair was dyed for first time as part of funeral rituals, University of Granada)
Moreover, the UGR team of researchers points out that, although in the Bronze Age a new type of funerary ritual with individual tombs was established, this did not mean the social rupture that we thought until now, since the re‑use of ancient funerary monuments continued for several hundred years.
(The necropolis of El Barranquete in Níjar (Almería), proven to have been used for funerary rituals throughout the Bronze Age, University of Granada)
Homogenous dietary habits, together with ritual and funerary practices in which the emphasis was on community rather than the individual, show that Megalithic peoples were characterized by social relations that were fundamentally based on values such as equality, reciprocity, and solidarity.
(Analysis of the Palaeolithic diet finds that, in the prehistoric age, for thousands of years there were no social divisions in food consumption, University of Granada)
The excavations have led to the discovery of almost 100 bodies and have enabled researchers to identify a number of fascinating funeral rituals, such as the practice of dyeing the corpse’s hair red, the deliberate placing of bodies in the middle of the cave, the use of ceramic elements in such rituals, and a practice called trepanation where a hole is drilled into the skull.
(Hair was dyed for first time as part of funeral rituals, University of Granada)
The anthropological study of the remains, which are mixed together forming ossuaries, has shown that individuals of both genders and of all ages accessed to the funerary ritual, with little presence of children despite the high mortality rates.
(The necropolis of El Barranquete in Níjar (Almería), proven to have been used for funerary rituals throughout the Bronze Age, University of Granada)
The archaeologists have identified a series of hitherto unrevealed funeral rituals, which were performed between the end of the second millennium BC and the beginning of the first millennium BC in the Biniadris Cave located in Menorca.
(Hair was dyed for first time as part of funeral rituals, University of Granada)
