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

The biggest dance of high school is a rite of passage for most kids, including ones with A-list parents or impressive résumés of their own. —Lindy Segal, People.com, 17 May 2025

Although a secondary character, Keisha also offers a beautiful mediation on the rite of passage from Black girlhood to womanhood. —Meagan Jordan, Rolling Stone, 16 May 2025

For decades, the racetrack at Rockingham served as a rite of passage in the sport of racing. —Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 28 Apr. 2025

While the experience is a rite of passage for many rappers, A$AP Rocky barely kept it together after blazing with Snoop in 2016. —Mackenzie Cummings-Grady, Billboard, 25 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above