(Lat. ritus) is, in general, an external sign or action employed in religious services, and designed either to express or to incite a corresponding internal religious feeling. Such are, for instance, the uplifting or outstretchting of the hands in prayer, the imposition of hands, etc. The name rite is sometimes used to signify the aggregate of all the ceremonies used in a particular religious office, as a "rite of baptism" or of the eucharist. In a still wider sense, it is used of the whole body of distinctive ceremonial, including the liturgy employed by a particular community of Christians. In this way we speak of the "Roman rite," the "Greek rite," or the "Slavonic rite." (See CEREMONY).