Main Entry: cult
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: French & Latin; French culte, from Latin cultus care, adoration, from colere to
cultivate — more at wheel
Date: 1617
1 : formal religious veneration : worship
cult definition
cult (kult)
noun
1.
1. a system of religious worship or ritual
cult
cult
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Does your English Dictionary give you the help you need? We publish dictionaries for people learning English all over the world.
Definition
[C] a religious group, often living together, whose beliefs are considered extreme or strange by many people
Their son ran away from home and joined a religious cult.
[C] a particular system of religious belief
Cult
Noun
1. Adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices.
2. An interest followed with exaggerated zeal: "he always follows the latest fads"; "it was all the rage that season".
3. A system of religious beliefs and rituals.
2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator
5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially:
such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad
b : the object of such devotion
c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
2. a quasi-religious group, often living in a colony, with a charismatic leader who
indoctrinates members with unorthodox or extremist views, practices, or beliefs
2.
1. devoted attachment to, or extravagant admiration for, a person, principle, or
lifestyle, esp. when regarded as a fad the cult of nudism
2. the object of such attachment
3. a group of followers; sect
Use cult in a Sentence
See web results for cult
See images of cult
–noun
1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body
of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their
sacred symbols.
6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living
outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
7. the members of such a religion or sect.
8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have
sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or
unscientific.
–adjective
9. of or pertaining to a cult.
10. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees: a cult movie.
Origin:
1610–20; < L cultus habitation, tilling, refinement, worship, equiv. to cul-, var. s. of colere to inhabit, till, worship + -tus suffix of v. action
n.
1.
a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers
often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
b. The followers of such a religion or sect.
2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or
exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
5.
a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
b. The object of such devotion.
6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary Buy this dictionary
Search Select another dictionary
cult noun (RELIGION)
the Hindu cult of Shiva