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

Breakfast here is practically a rite of passage. —Lauren Dana Ellman, Travel + Leisure, 11 Oct. 2025

As Hunter Haight darted onto the ice Thursday for his rookie lap, a rite of passage for any NHL debut, and got set to take his first shot in warmups for the Minnesota Wild, the moment temporarily became too much. —Joe Smith, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025

There are rites of passage — everyone makes a heart, everyone makes a brain. —Tony Maglio, HollywoodReporter, 8 Oct. 2025

The Texas tradition has become a teenage rite of passage and a kind of folk art, too. —Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 3 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above