Definition of "novitiate" []

• The period of being a novice. (noun)
• A place where novices live. (noun)
• See novice. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "All were nobles, trained in the profession of arms, and this period – which might be described as a novitiate – was the crucible in which the specific spirituality of the Templars gradually took shape."
• "And then we see that the Maytag novitiate is in the back room with a cell phone, foiled in his attempt to get the box of Cheez-Its."
• "The latter, though obliged to respect the prerogatives of the novice-master, remains the real immediate superior of the novices, and outside that part of the house which is called the novitiate, the direction of the entire community belongs exclusively to him."