traditional

adjective

trə-ˈdish-nəl How to pronounce traditional (audio)
Definition of traditionalnext
1
as in customary
based on customs usually handed down from a previous generation a traditional Passover meal at his grandparents' house

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in conservative
tending to favor established ideas, conditions, or institutions a family that is very traditional when it comes to institutions like marriage

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of traditional Royals fans love the traditional Salvy Splash following a win, but there was one of a different kind during the Royals’ 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 23 July 2026 Anglada said FirstRand views the company as a specialized technology and platform provider that enables access to the base of the pyramid in ways a traditional bank cannot replicate. — Tiisetso Motsoeneng, semafor.com, 22 July 2026 Municipal elections held during presidential or congressional election years draw dramatically larger electorates than traditional odd-year contests, when turnout tends to be dominated by voters most engaged in local government. — Nora O'Neill, Charlotte Observer, 22 July 2026 Due to be revealed in full later this year, the GT reimagines the traditional grand tourer through a distinctly Range Rover lens. — Matthew MacConnell, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for traditional
Recent Examples of Synonyms for traditional
  1. customary
  2. conservative
  3. conventional
  4. orthodox
  5. classical
  6. usual
  7. historical
Adjective
  • Some players were involved in a training camp in Marbella, Spain, the previous week, which has become customary at Arsenal in recent years for players to start building their fitness early.
    — Art de Roché, New York Times, 22 July 2026
  • The evidence primarily concerns coffee consumed in customary amounts (8-10 ounces).
    — Robert Glatter, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026
Definition of customary
Adjective
  • El Dorado County paid former Public Health Director Jennifer Byrne $75,000 to resign, plus roughly $59,000 in administrative leave pay, in a settlement stemming from Instagram posts about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
    — Ruyuan Li. Summary produced by AI assistance, Sacbee.com, 17 July 2026
  • Why This Belongs In The Finance Seat The CFO is the most conservative person in the building, so handing them an emerging technology to drive sounds backward.
    — David Zwick, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026
Definition of conservative
Adjective
  • That stacks up against the 176 conventional seawalls permitted by Fort Lauderdale in the same window where the church applied for one, the church said.
    — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 22 July 2026
  • Purchase data confirmed a hypothesis that conventional epidemiology had to generate first, which is useful and which is a different job from finding the vendor.
    — John Drake, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
Definition of conventional
Adjective
  • Tens of thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews, sometimes called Haredi, have refused conscription into the Israeli militia on religious grounds.
    — Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 14 July 2026
  • The 28-year-old struggled in Amorim’s 4-3-2-1 system, but Carrick has largely used a more orthodox 4-2-3-1 shape since taking over, making room for Rashford on the left side of the forward line.
    — Graham Ruthven, Forbes.com, 10 July 2026
Definition of orthodox
Adjective
  • Nonlocality, whose experimental verification helped earn the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, allows distant quantum systems to produce correlations that cannot be explained by classical physics alone.
    — Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 18 July 2026
  • Christopher Nolan‘s box office journey with The Odyssey looks to be one for the books, as Universal Pictures‘ star-studded adaptation of the classical Greek mythological tale gets off to a rousing start in its opening weekend.
    — Ryan Gajewski, HollywoodReporter, 18 July 2026
Definition of classical
Adjective
  • The 2026 edition of IFFM will present its usual slate of films, conversations and cultural programming spanning Indian cinema’s various languages and regional traditions.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 17 July 2026
  • But again, since Christopher Nolan’s films don’t follow the streaming release strategy that most other Universal films do, Peacock subscribers are in for a longer wait than usual before the film makes its SVOD on the platform.
    — Tim Lammers, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026
Definition of usual
Adjective
  • The 1968 Benchmark The late 1960s marked the historical high-water mark for the real value of the federal minimum wage.
    — Doug Melville, Forbes.com, 24 July 2026
  • An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that China has no legal basis to claim historical rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.
    — Ivan Watson, CNN Money, 24 July 2026
Definition of historical

Browse Nearby Words

tradition
traditional
traditionalism
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Traditional.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/traditional. Accessed 25 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on traditional

Nglish: Translation of traditional for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Do you 'say your piece' or 'say your peace'?

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 24

Why do we say 'fly off the handle'?
See More

Popular

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
chain-question-mark
Missing Link Quiz July 2026 Five seconds to figure out the word that fits bot...
See All