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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
novitiate
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And so, it began: after the novitiate, classical and humane studies, and then philosophy.
▪ But when be was seventeen, he entered the novitiate.
▪ Ed had entered the Jesuit novitiate in the summer of 1975, just one month after his high school graduation.
▪ He completed, took orders and entered the novitiate all within a couple of years.
▪ He entered the Jesuit novitiate on 26 May 1583.
▪ His thoughts drifted forward in time from his novitiate.
▪ No longer could he fall back on the comforting routines of the novitiate to give structure to his life.
▪ The novitiate over, they are permitted to make their first vows.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Novitiate

Novitiate \No*vi"ti*ate\, n. [LL. novitiatus: cf. F. noviciat.]

  1. The state of being a novice; time of initiation or instruction in rudiments.

  2. Hence: The time of probation in a religious house before taking the vows.

  3. One who is going through a novitiate, or period of probation; a novice.
    --Addison.

  4. The place where novices live or are trained. [R.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
novitiate

also noviciate, "state of being a novice," c.1600, from Middle French noviciat or directly from Medieval Latin novitiatus, from Late Latin novitius "novice," from Latin adjective novicius (see novice).

Wiktionary
novitiate

n. 1 the period during which a novice of a religious order undergoes training 2 the place where a novice lives and studies 3 a novice

WordNet
novitiate
  1. n. the period during which you are a novice (especially in a religious order) [syn: noviciate]

  2. someone who has entered a religious order but has not taken final vows [syn: novice]

Usage examples of "novitiate".

I thought: I could easily remove any objections which might be made to the long term of my novitiate, by agreeing, in case I changed my mind, to forfeit the ten thousand crowns which I would pay in advance.

Looking at him, Dulchase burst out laughing and received a reproving glance from the serious-minded novitiate.

Although Sparhawk had come close to hating the man during his novitiate, he now regarded the blunt-spoken preceptor as one of his closest friends, and their handclasp was warm, even affectionate.

Martin had been unimpressed by the visit of the sacred arm of St Francis Xavier to the Massachusetts novitiate.

But then she never continued any in her house, whom, after a due novitiate, she found untractable, or unwilling to comply with the rules of it.

Francis spent seven years in the novitiate, seven Lenten vigils in the desert, and became highly proficient in the imitation of wolf calls.

Only a few years before the Bounty came to Tahiti, Pipiri had with his own hands slain his two children, according to the rites of the horrible fraternity, which demanded that a candidate entering upon his novitiate should publicly kill his children and put his wife aside, unless she too should become an Areoi.

The knights and gentlemen of this little army of horse and foot soldiers were largely recruited from the company of squires and bachelors, as the young novitiate soldiers of the castle were called.

It was known that not one catalyst fell asleep during the three-day trial, and there had been such a state of fevered excitement among the novitiates at night that Evening Prayers had been lengthened from one hour to two for a month following.

Rector of Novitiates and babbles a confession of the sinfulness of his deeds.

Two of his retinue guarded his private quarters, young, sternly molded men, novitiates to the Cyclan, officially his personal attendants.

It was there Charles Lamb passed the novitiate of his long years of clerkship in the East India Company.

Angelina, I have arranged for you to take up the novitiate in the Carmelite sisterhood with the Cloister of Santa Lucia Della Monte outside Verona.

He'd done a novitiate at Aarschot, graduated as an actual brother and been transferred to Moleen, where he'd come off a mission only days before we got there.

We were novitiates, and the rigorous training, administered by high priests called drill instructors, was to be our ordeal of initiation.