Rumspringa
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A period of adolescence for some members of the Amish that begins around the age of 14–16 and ends when a youth chooses baptism within the Amish church or instead leaves the community. US, countable, uncountable
"At stake for the Amish community in the rumspringa process is nothing less than the survival of their sect and way of life. For if the unbaptized children who venture into the world at sixteen do not later return to the fold in sufficient numbers, the sect will dwindle and die out."
Example
More examples"At stake for the Amish community in the rumspringa process is nothing less than the survival of their sect and way of life. For if the unbaptized children who venture into the world at sixteen do not later return to the fold in sufficient numbers, the sect will dwindle and die out."
Etymology
Borrowed from Pennsylvania German rumspringe (“to jump around”). Compare German rumspringen.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.