Link Centre Dictionary

novitiate

no·vi·tiate

UK/nəˈvɪʃi.ət/ uncommon

noun

1.

the period during which you are a novice (especially in a religious order)

Synonyms
2.

someone who has entered a religious order but has not taken final vows

Synonyms

Origin

First attested in 1517; either borrowed from Middle French noviciat, novitiat or from Medieval Latin noviciātus, novitiātus (“a novitiate”), from Latin novicius, novitius + -ātus (see -ate (forming nouns denoting a rank or office)), from novus (“new”). Sense 1 is not attested in cognates.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.