WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Rit"u*al*ism
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [Cf. F. ritualisme.]
Definition : 1. A system founded upon a ritual or prescribed form of religious worship; adherence to, or observance of, a ritual.

2. Specifically :(a) The principles and practices of those in the Church of England, who in the development of the Oxford movement, so- called, have insisted upon a return to the use in church services of the symbolic ornaments (altar cloths, encharistic vestments, candles, etc.) that were sanctioned in the second year of Edward VI., and never, as they maintain, forbidden by competennt authority, although generally disused. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. (b) Also, the principles and practices of those in the Protestant Episcopal Church who sympathize with this party in the Church of England.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913