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

Taking part in that annual rite of passage this season, the 6-foot-3 senior forward wonders how the years could pass by so quickly. —Steve Reaven, Chicago Tribune, 16 Feb. 2026

Derry Girls, which followed teens in McGee’s native Derry in the years preceding 1998’s Good Friday Agreement, was a raucous, joke-dense show that juxtaposed mundane adolescent rites of passage with the daily horrors of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. —Judy Berman, Time, 13 Feb. 2026

Is this childhood rite of passage safe or not? —Isabel Lopez, Parents, 11 Feb. 2026

Despite its reputation, crossing the Drake Passage is often considered a rite of passage for Antarctic travelers. —Nathan Diller, USA Today, 9 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above