Meaning of traditional in English

traditional

adjective

/trəˈdɪʃ.ən.əl/ uk

/trəˈdɪʃ.ən.əl/

following or belonging to the customs or ways of behaving that have continued in a group of people or society for a long time without changing:

The residents retain a strong attachment to their traditional values/customs/beliefs.

The school uses a combination of modern and traditional methods for teaching reading.

The dancers were wearing traditional Hungarian dress/costume.

She's very traditional (in her ideas and opinions).

More examplesFewer examples

Recently there has been some movement away from traditional methods of teaching.
In Britain, the traditional Sunday lunch consists of roast meat, potatoes and other vegetables.
In some countries it is traditional for a bride to wear white.
Here it's traditional that you haggle over the price of things in the market.
I'm a great lover of traditional Irish music.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Custom, tradition & conformity

See more results »

(Definition of traditional from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

traditional | Intermediate English

traditional

adjective

/trəˈdɪʃ·ən·əl/

Add to word list Add to word list

following or belonging to the ways of behaving or beliefs that have been established for a long time:

the traditional two-parent family

traditional Southern cooking

the traditional politeness of Japanese culture

traditionally

adverb us

/trəˈdɪʃ·ən·əl·i/

The Democratic Party won a seat in the Senate that has traditionally been held by a Republican.

(Definition of traditional from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of traditional

traditional

This was one of the first games to appeal to an audience beyond the traditional male audience.

From ABC News

Accredited online degrees are just as good as traditional degrees, if you know what to look for.

From TIME

Environmental activists know one of their strongest arguments is to speak out and even go to court to protect a traditional culture.

From NPR

In the traditional music industry model, every artist is an investment requiring years of development and sunk costs.

From San Francisco Chronicle

The traditional family is grounded in these facts and takes them into account.

From Heritage.org

Smart windows will be bigger than traditional windows.

From USA TODAY

However, one big reason that many diets fail is that traditional weight-loss programs don't factor in how we process energy.

From Huffington Post

He revealed he can't shop the traditional way.

From New York Post

That undermines the traditional knowledge of the elders.

From CNN

This unpredictability undermines traditional knowledge of safe routes across the ice.

From CNN

This category may be a more expensive borrowing option than traditional home loans with high upfront costs.

From Huffington Post

Instead, he offered a traditional 12-step response.

From Huffington Post

It's worth noting how different this practice is from traditional advertising.

From The Atlantic

But even in traditional dorms, students have higher expectations for the latest amenities.

From Chicago Tribune

For patients who require more than routine care, it may be more cost-effective to go the traditional insurance route.

From ABC News

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of traditional?