a body of persons adhering to a particular religious faith; a religious denomination.
a group regarded as heretical or as deviating from a generally accepted religious tradition.
(in the sociology of religion) a Christian denomination characterized by insistence on strict qualifications for membership, as distinguished from the more inclusive groups called churches.
any group, party, or faction united by a specific doctrine or under a doctrinal leader.
a subdivision of a larger religious group (esp the Christian Church as a whole) the members of which have to some extent diverged from the rest by developing deviating beliefs, practices, etc
derogatory
a schismatic religious body characterized by an attitude of exclusivity in contrast to the more inclusive religious groups called denominations or Churches
a religious group regarded as extreme or heretical
a group of people with a common interest, doctrine, etc; faction
1300–50; Middle English secte < Latin secta something to follow, pathway, course of conduct, school of thought, probably noun derivative of sectārī to pursue, accompany, wait upon, frequentative of sequī to follow
From Latin sectus, past participle of secāre “to cut”
A sect is a religious group that exists inside of a larger religion. Think of it as a section of a particular religion. Although objectively speaking a sect is merely a subdivision of a larger religious group, the word often carries with it the feeling of a part of a religion that has broken away. It often has a negative connotation in English because it implies that the group departed from what was standard to believe something different or odd. If you are comparing two sects you might talk about their sectarian differences.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Fast-forward 25 years, and she started accompanying her husband, Zack Hoppenrath, who is currently in the punk band Zack Static Sect, to shows, and began taking pictures with her iPhone.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 19, 2021
“The show is not called ‘My Fringe Sect Life,’ it is called ‘My Unorthodox Life,’” reads an opinion piece from The Jerusalem Post.
From New York Times • Aug. 12, 2021
Saved by the Beggars’ Sect, he learns the long-lost martial art of Drunken Fist to defeat the person who framed him.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2020
His concern is shared by other local Plain Sect dairy farmers - a considerable source of milk production in the state’s number one dairy county.
From Washington Times • Oct. 7, 2017
This was swiftly and angrily noted by the Ultramontane polemists, and the old bogey of a "Formidable Sect" began to haunt them in a revised and enlarged form.
From The myth of the Jewish menace in world affairs or, The truth about the forged protocols of the elders of Zion by Wolf, Lucien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
