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traditional definition

tra·di·tional (trə dis̸h′ə nəl)

adjective

  1. of, handed down by, or conforming to tradition; conventional
    also traditionary tra·di′·tion·ar′y (-ner′ē) or Raretraditive trad′i·tive (trad′ə tiv)
  2. designating or of a style of improvised jazz associated historically with early black New Orleans musicians and typically played by a band made up of one or two cornets, a clarinet, a trombone, and a rhythm section that includes a banjo and a tuba

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

traditional Synonyms

traditional

modif.

  1. Handed down orally

    folkloric, legendary, mythical, epical, ancestral, unwritten, balladic, told, handed down, fabulous, anecdotal, proverbial, inherited, folkloristic.

  2. Generally accepted

    old, acknowledged, customary, habitual, widespread, usual, widely used, popular, acceptable, established, fixed, sanctioned, universal, doctrinal, disciplinary, taken for granted, immemorial, rooted, classical, prescribed, conventional; see also common 1, regular 3.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

traditional Usage Examples

Infinitive complement

  • use: As a matter of statistical convenience it has been traditional to use what are called workforce based rates.

Modifies a noun

  • method: Many of the wet meadows are managed by the traditional method of grazing with cattle.

Modifying Another Word

  • fairly: The 9am Choir, under the direction of Kathy Underhill, is fairly traditional in its approach.

Used with adjective complement

  • sing: Richard Woods Richard Woods comes from the Wirral plays guitar and sings traditional, through contemporary songs and tunes.
traditional usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

traditional quotes

Literature is conscious mythology: as society develops, its mythical stories become structural principles of story-telling, its mythical concepts, sun-gods and the like, become habits of metaphoric thought. In a fully mature literary tradition the writerenters intoa structure of traditional stories and images.

-Frye, Northrop

The line dividing the state from what is called private enterprise, orat least fromthehighlyorganized part of it, is a traditional fiction.

-Galbraith,John Kenneth

He understood†Walt Whitman, who laid end to end words never seen in each other's company before outside of a dictionary, and Herman Melville who split the atom of the traditional novel in the effort to make whaling a universal metaphor.

-Lodge, David John

traditional quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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MLA Style

"traditional." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 3 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/traditional>

APA Style

traditional. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 3rd, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/traditional

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