n.
   - the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way. 
▸a long-established custom or belief passed on from one generation to another.
 - an artistic or literary method or style established by an artist, writer, or movement, and subsequently followed by others.
 - (in Christianity) doctrine not explicit in the Bible but held to derive from the oral teaching of Christ and the Apostles. 
▸(in Judaism) an ordinance of the oral law not in the Torah but held to have been given by God to Moses.
 ▸(in Islam) a saying or act ascribed to the Prophet but not recorded in the Koran. See Hadith.
 
 
  Derivative
  
    - traditionary adj.
  - traditionist n.
  - traditionless adj.
 
   
  Etymology
  ME: from OFr. tradicion, or from L. traditio(n-), from tradere ‘deliver, betray’, from trans- ‘across’ + dare ‘give’.