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• cabal
  cabal

  noun

  a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority.
• Cabal
  Cabal

  noun

  English history a group of ministers of Charles II that governed from 1667–73: consisting of Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale

cabal

American  

[kuh-bal, kuh-bawl] / kəˈbæl, kəˈbɔl /

noun

• cabals
  plural

1. a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority.

   Synonyms:

   ring, league, band, faction, junta

2. the plots and schemes of such a group; intrigue.

3. a clique, as in artistic, literary, or theatrical circles.

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verb (used without object)

• cabals,
  present (3rd person singular)
• caballed,
  past participle,  past participle,  past (especially British)
• cabaled,
  past
• caballing
  present participle,  present participle (especially British)

1. to form a cabal; intrigue; conspire; plot.

cabal ¹ British  

/ kəˈbæl /

noun

1. a small group of intriguers, esp one formed for political purposes

2. a secret plot, esp a political one; conspiracy; intrigue

3. a secret or exclusive set of people; clique

---

verb

1. to form a cabal; conspire; plot

Cabal ² British  

/ kəˈbæl /

noun

1. English history a group of ministers of Charles II that governed from 1667–73: consisting of Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale

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Synonym Usage

See conspiracy.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• caballer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cabals
  plural

Participles

• caballing
  present
• caballed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cabal
  simple
• cabals
  simple
• have caballed
  perfect
• has caballed
  perfect
• am caballing
  progressive
• are caballing
  progressive
• is caballing
  progressive
• have been caballing
  perfect progressive
• has been caballing
  perfect progressive

Past

• cabaled
  simple
• caballed
  simple
• had caballed
  perfect
• was caballing
  progressive
• were caballing
  progressive
• had been caballing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cabal
  simple
• will have caballed
  perfect
• will be caballing
  progressive
• will have been caballing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of cabal

First recorded in 1610–20, for an earlier sense; earlier cabbal, from Medieval Latin cabbala; see kabbalah

Explanation

A cabal is a secret plot, or a small group of people who create such a plot. Some conspiracy theories are based on the idea that governments worldwide are in the hands of a powerful cabal. Cabal comes from the word cabbala (also spelled kabbala), which refers to a Jewish tradition of interpreting texts. Cabbala is often regarded as a secret and mystical practice and, as such, the word took on the additional meaning of “secret behavior.” Cabal comes from this sense of the word. A well-known cabal in 17th-century England was coincidentally made up of five members whose names’ initial letters spelled the word cabal. (Their names were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale.)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cabal Cabal cabals caballed caballing

Social media, however, and its cabal of influencers operate along many of the same lines as their reality TV forebears.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026

Conspiracy theories surfaced online that the whale had been deliberately driven into the Baltic Sea and all had been staged by a cabal of scientists, authorities and environmental organisations.

From Barron's ● Apr. 23, 2026

This is evidently what the investment cabal has done.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 16, 2026

It was the inner circle, a cabal I’d tried to disband for more than a decade.

From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2026

They would turn their backs on her, her mother, the policemen, her brother, and go off with Robbie Turner to indulge some adult cabal.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

However, Lang made it 2-2 just after half-time and Davinson Sanchez put Galatasaray back in the lead before Juventus had Juan Cabal sent off.

From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026

Edmond Mulet is a former Guatemalan diplomat and president of Congress, who competed in the first round of the election as the presidential candidate for the Cabal party.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 20, 2023

The reform risks hurting job creation, Jaime Alberto Cabal, president of merchants association Fenalco, told journalists earlier on Thursday.

From Reuters ● Mar. 17, 2023

On Saturday, Evans partners Skupski against former world number one doubles pair Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, before returning to action against Barrientos following Norrie's tie with Mejia.

From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2023

Goethe's Goetz and Werther, Schiller's Brigands and Cabal and Love, were greeted as the promising forerunners of the national literature to come.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 13 by John Rudd

That Epstein’s crimes were confined to himself and a few enablers, chiefly Ghislaine Maxwell, was intolerable to influencers and politicos determined to attribute all bad things to the dark workings of cabals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026

We’ve also reached a point in the season at which previous groups of Traitors turned on each other for reasons similar to those that do in tyrannical cabals: mutual envy, paranoia and greed.

From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2026

“As soon as they heard that, a lot of cabals here in Hollywood, that’s all they needed to hear. It’s like, ‘OK, she must be destroyed.’

From Washington Times ● Oct. 3, 2019

To that simple plot line, Mr. Eco attached a labyrinthine series of deceptions, cabals and occult mysteries, including a lost work of Aristotle thought to be inspired by the Devil.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 20, 2016

Men muttered in small cabals or threatened one another by the fireside, cutting each other with their eyes and hissing, vaunting superiority in their familiarity with the Unseen.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

He caballed with the very men to whom he had hitherto been most vehemently opposed for the sole object of expelling Lord Shelburne from office.

From The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860 by Charles Duke Yonge

Europe was fluttered, secret service money was poured out like water, diplomatists caballed and scribbled despatches, all for very little. 

From Pickle the Spy; Or, the Incognito of Prince Charles by Andrew Lang

A club of wits caballed and produced a collection of short poems sarcastically entitled “Certain Verses written by several of the Author’s Friends, to be reprinted in the Second Edition of ‘Gondibert,’” 1653.

From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli

The King, regarding it as a blow at the power of the Crown, caballed and canvassed the Peers against it.

From The Impeachment of The House of Brunswick by Charles Bradlaugh

He laughed at the crises: he disdained this war of words, caballed against ministers, and treated passing events with levity.

From History of the Girondists, Volume I Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution by H. T. Ryde

Henry Kissinger happened to be visiting London at the time and witnessed the caballing against her.

From Newsweek ● Apr. 8, 2013

Still busily seeking, I suppose, to be a pick-thanks with those in power by casting ridicule on those they are caballing to destroy.”

From Janice Meredith by Paul Leicester Ford

I do not believe that it is in his nature to be a month in office without caballing against his colleagues.

From Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay Volume 1 by Sir George Otto Trevelyan

That their perpetual caballing with her factious subjects, against her authority, had forced her into such measures, as otherwise she would not have engaged in.

From The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 10 Historical Writings by Jonathan Swift

For my own share, I have preserved peace in my house till your arrival: and I warn you, that if you have the passion of intriguing and caballing, you have applied to the wrong hand.

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 16 by Thomas Carlyle