| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ritual; celebratory observation |
| Synonyms: | ceremonial, commemoration, custom, formality, function, liturgy, observance, ordinance, parade, rite, sacrament, service, show, solemnity, tradition |
| Main Entry: | anniversary |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | yearly observance, celebration |
| Synonyms: | ceremony, commemoration, feast day, festival, holiday, jubilee, recurrence, red-letter day |
| Main Entry: | celebration |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | commemoration of occasion, achievement |
| Synonyms: | anniversary, bash*, birthday, blast*, blowout, carousal, ceremony, conviviality, festival, festivity, fete, frolic, gaiety, gala, glorification, hilarity, honoring, hoopla, hullabaloo*, jollification, joviality, jubilation, jubilee, keeping, magnification, memorialization, merriment, merrymaking, observance, party, performance, recognition, remembrance, revelry, saturnalia, solemnization, spree, triumph, wingding |
| Main Entry: | commemoration |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | honoring, observance |
| Synonyms: | celebration, ceremony, custom, memorial service, monumentalization, recognition, remembrance, tribute |
| Antonyms: | forgetting, neglect, negligence, unobservance |
| Main Entry: | courtesy |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | good manners |
| Synonyms: | address, affability, amenities, amiability, attentiveness, ceremony, chivalry, civility, comity, complaisance, consideration, cordiality, courteousness, courtliness, cultivation, culture, deference, elegance, familiarity, favor, friendliness, gallantness, gallantry, generosity, geniality, gentleness, good behavior, good breeding, graciousness, indulgence, kindness, polish, politeness, refinement, respect, reverence, solicitude, suavity, sympathy, tact, thoughtfulness, urbanity |
| Antonyms: | bad manners, discourtesy, impoliteness, pompousness, rudeness, unmannerliness |
| Main Entry: | cult |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | worship; form of ceremony |
| Synonyms: | admiration, ceremony, craze, creed, cultus, devotion, faddism, faith, idolization, liturgy, persuasion, religion, reverence, rite, ritual, veneration |
| Notes: | a sect is a rule defined by some doctrinal difference, a cult by allegiance to an idea or commanding personality |
| Main Entry: | custom |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ritual, traditional action |
| Synonyms: | attitude, canon, ceremony, character, convention, conventionalism, customariness, design, dictates, established way, etiquette, fashion, folkways, form, formality, inheritence, manner, matter of course, method, mode, mold, mores, observance, observation, pattern, performance, policy, practice, praxis, precedent, precept, rite, routine, rule, second nature, style, system, taste, type, unwritten law, unwritten rule, usage, use, vogue, way |
| Notes: | costume and custom were actually two forms of the same Latin root consuetudinem 'habit, custom,' with costume first meaning 'manners and customs belonging to a particular time and place' |
| Antonyms: | departure, deviation |
| Main Entry: | event |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | occurrence, happening |
| Synonyms: | accident, act, action, advent, adventure, affair, appearance, business, calamity, case, catastrophe, celebration, ceremony, chance, circumstance, coincidence, conjuncture, crisis, deed, development, emergency, episode, experience, exploit, fact, function, holiday, incident, juncture, marvel, matter, milestone, miracle, misfortune, mishap, mistake, occasion, occurrence, pass, phase, phenomenon, predicament, proceeding, shift, situation, story, thing*, tide, transaction, triumph, turn, wonder |
| Main Entry: | exorcism |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | expelling evil spirits |
| Synonyms: | casting out, ceremony, ejection, expulsion, purification, ritual |