traditional
Noun pluraltraditionals
Pluraltraditionals
- 1Established over a long time and widely accepted, in contrast to newer or alternative approaches.
Many students now take courses online instead of attending traditional classes on campus.
LED bulbs use far less electricity than traditional incandescent ones.
Similarconventional, established
Oppositeunconventional, modern, alternative
Note
The word works by contrast here: traditional classes, banks or bulbs are defined against a newer rival, such as online, digital or energy-saving ones, and conventional is the near synonym. Medicine needs context. Traditional medicine often refers to healing practices handed down within a culture, linking it to what is handed down by tradition. However, when contrasted with alternative medicine, it can also mean conventional medical care.
- 2Of, relating to, or coming from customs, beliefs, or practices handed down through generations, often by word of mouth.
The village still celebrates the harvest with traditional songs and costumes.
Traditional farming methods rely on seasonal cycles rather than imported chemicals.
- 3Attached to old customs and established ways of doing things, and inclined to keep them rather than change.
His traditional outlook left him uneasy with the company's modern policies.
They remain deeply traditional, observing every custom their parents kept.
Similarconservative, conventional, old-fashioned, orthodox
Oppositeprogressive, modern, unconventional
- 4Something that is conventional, standard, or customary rather than novel.
In home design, he favors the traditional over flashy modern trends.
Her set mixed a few new songs with old traditionals that the whole crowd could sing along to.
UsageOften the traditional, set against the new: favors the traditional. The plural traditionals means familiar old songs or names.
Similarconventional, classic, standard
Note
Usually plural: a singer's set might lean on traditionals like "Motherless Child," and a list of baby names might include traditionals such as Matthew and Emily. With the and no plural, as in preferring the traditional, it names the conventional style in general.
Less common meanings
- 5Relating to the older, fuller forms of Chinese characters, retained in places such as Taiwan and Hong Kong rather than the simplified set used in mainland China.
The newspaper publishes a traditional Chinese edition for its readers overseas.
She switched her keyboard to traditional Chinese before typing the formal invitation.
UsageUsually in traditional Chinese or traditional characters, set against simplified.
Oppositesimplified
Note
Here the word names a script, not a custom: the fuller, older forms of Chinese characters, set against the simplified ones. The difference shows on the page, where a traditional form can carry twice the strokes of its simplified counterpart.
- 6Ellipsis of traditional Chinese.
Calligraphers in Taiwan still write everything in traditional.
The app lets you switch the menus from simplified to traditional with one tap.
UsageUsed with no article: write in traditional, switch from simplified to traditional.
Note
Clipped from traditional Chinese, the noun names the script itself. It stands in contrast to Simplified Chinese, which the PRC introduced as a script reform. The character-by-character contrast belongs to the adjective for the older script.
- 7A person whose beliefs follow long-established tradition.
By the study's measure, anyone who attended services every week and opposed changes to the liturgy was classed as a traditional.
In the sociologist's model, traditionals draw their values from family and faith, while moderns look to science and personal choice.
Similartraditionalist, conservative
Oppositeprogressive, modernist
- 8Used in place of a composer's name when the original writer of a piece of music is unknown.
On the sleeve notes, the opening reel is listed as traditional, its author lost to history.
The arranger marked the piece traditional because no one knows who composed it.
Similaranonymous
Note
A credit line rather than a description: the word fills the composer slot on a sleeve, songbook or program where a name would otherwise go. It signals that a tune has passed into the common repertoire with no documented author. That is why it sits comfortably beside an arranger's name, as when a living musician arranges a piece credited simply as traditional.
- 9Ellipsis of traditional art.
- 10Ellipsis of traditional grip.
Showing meanings only.
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Origin
Formed from "tradition" combined with the suffix "-al".
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Traditional was formed from tradition and the suffix -al. en.wiktionary.org