Traditional

How to spell traditional

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce traditional

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does traditional mean?

1. adjectiveFollowing or relating to long-established customs, methods, or beliefs passed down over time.

Traditional in a sentence

• The family served a traditional roast dinner every Sunday.

• The village still holds a traditional festival each spring.

Where does traditional come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb tradere, meaning 'to hand over' or 'to deliver', formed from trans 'across' and dare 'to give'. From this came the Latin noun traditio, the act of handing something on, which could mean both a physical handing over and the passing down of customs or teachings. English took the noun 'tradition' through Old French during the 1300s, and the adjective 'traditional' was built later by adding the familiar -al ending, recorded from around the late 1500s. The same tradere root surprisingly also gave us 'traitor' and 'treason', since a person who hands someone over to the enemy is doing a darker kind of delivering. The spelling trap is the quiet middle: writers must keep the -di- and the -tion intact, since the word is pronounced with a soft 'sh' that hides the original t.

How the word is built

• tradit- (from tradere: to hand over, pass down)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)
• -al (adjective suffix)