rite of passage

noun

plural rites of passage

: a ritual, event, or experience that marks or constitutes a major milestone or change in a person's life

Rites of passage celebrate the social movement of individuals into and out of groups or into or out of statuses of critical importance to the individual and to the community. Reproduction, the achievement of manhood and womanhood, marriage, and death are the principal worldwide occasions for rites of passage.

—Marvin Harris

For them the two years of missionary work, with the rigorous bootcamp-style training preceding it, is a rite of passage between graduation and marriage, adolescence and adult life.

—Malise Ruthven

Today, when each year American society becomes more complex, a veritable tapestry of nationalities, the strongest of our common threads may well be the rites of passage all immigrants face.

—Harold Holzer

The author, grandson of the poet Allen Tate, dropped out of Sewanee University after going through the by-now familiar 1960's rite of passage of drugs, sex, and antiwar demonstrations …

—Caroline Seebohm

compare initiation rite

Examples of rite of passage in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Shoving a beer can up a chicken’s rear end is a summertime rite of passage for serious grillers. —The Editors, Field & Stream, 4 July 2024

Delving into policy is Abdallah Fayyad, who investigates that rite of passage — the summer job — and how recent changes to child labor laws might put working teens at risk. —Vox Staff, Vox, 1 July 2024

Turner slipped one of the handwritten letters under the glass of their office desk, assuming such missives were a rite of passage for Democrats in a deep-red state. —Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Washington Post, 15 June 2024

But what’s remarkable is that despite seismic shifts in our culture, watching these films still remains a rite of passage for so many teenagers now. —Fiorella Valdesolo, Vogue, 12 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above