tradition

/trəˈdɪʃən/

/trəˈdɪʃən/

Other forms: traditions

Traditions are longstanding customs and practices. It might be a family tradition to open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, started because your parents were too impatient to wait.

The noun tradition has Latin roots in the word tradere, which means hand over or hand down. So think of a tradition as something that is handed down from one generation to another. Fireworks on the Fourth of July are a national tradition, and playing your school's fight song at the start of the football game is probably a longstanding tradition designed to get the fans excited for the game.

Definitions of tradition

1. noun

   a specific practice of long standing
   synonyms: custom

   types:

   habit, wont

   an established custom

   Hadith

   (Islam) a tradition based on reports of the sayings and activities of Muhammad and his companions

   institution

   a custom that for a long time has been an important feature of some group or society

   levirate

   the biblical institution whereby a man must marry the widow of his childless brother in order to maintain the brother's line

   type of:

   practice

   knowledge of how something is usually done
2. noun

   an inherited pattern of thought or action
   type of:

   cognitive content, content, mental object

   the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned