Definition of "tradition" []

• The passing down of elements of a culture from generation to generation, especially by oral communication. (noun)
• A mode of thought or behavior followed by a people continuously from generation to generation; a custom or usage. (noun)
• A set of such customs and usages viewed as a coherent body of precedents influencing the present: followed family tradition in dress and manners. See Synonyms at heritage. (noun)
• A body of unwritten religious precepts. (noun)
• A time-honored practice or set of such practices. (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.

• "This tradition, which only appears as a _tradition_ in one of the dynastic histories of the fifth century A."
• "The term tradition, like variation and selection, is taken in the broad sense."
• "I think one of the problems here is the misappropriation of the term 'tradition'."