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

Over time, signing each other's yearbooks became a rite of passage—a way for students to capture friendships and memories before moving on to the next stage of life. —Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Aug. 2025

Los Angeles is certainly not short of nightlife hotspots, but taking a weekend trip to Las Vegas to live it up at clubs, restaurants, and casinos is something of a rite of passage for most Angelenos. —Mae Hamilton, Travel + Leisure, 18 Aug. 2025

While the spotlight is often on chin hairs or thinning scalps, nose hair is quickly becoming another unexpected rite of passage. —Lauryn Higgins, Flow Space, 8 Aug. 2025

The annual jump, considered a rite of passage and an optional task to mark the completion of the Junior Lifeguards program for the summer, is presented by the Prevent Drowning Foundation of San Diego. —La Jolla Light, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above