cabal
noun
a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority.
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cabal
American
[kuh-bal, kuh-bawl]
/ kəˈbæl, kəˈbɔl /
noun
-
cabals
plural
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)
cabal
1
British
/ kəˈbæl /
noun
-
a small group of intriguers, esp one formed for political purposes
-
a secret plot, esp a political one; conspiracy; intrigue
-
a secret or exclusive set of people; clique
verb
Cabal
2
British
/ kəˈbæl /
noun
Synonym Usage
See conspiracy.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cabalsimple
-
cabalssimple
-
have caballedperfect
-
has caballedperfect
-
am caballingprogressive
-
are caballingprogressive
-
is caballingprogressive
-
have been caballingperfect progressive
-
has been caballingperfect progressive
Past
-
cabaledsimple
-
caballedsimple
-
had caballedperfect
-
was caballingprogressive
-
were caballingprogressive
-
had been caballingperfect progressive
Future
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.)
Vocabulary lists containing cabal
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Hidden Figures
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The Federalist Papers, No. 10 by James Madison
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
Then he traces how a theocratic cabal, whose rule most observers thought would be short, found a way to consolidate power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 2025
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, who competed in the first round of presidential voting for the conservative Cabal party, said he counts Arévalo as a friend.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 22, 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
“It’s horrible,” said Mr. Cabal, the ice cream vendor in Queens, who has worked on ice cream trucks for the last nine years.
From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2022
Rupert had no liking for intrigues, and he held himself equally aloof from those of Shaftesbury, and those of the Cabal.
From Rupert Prince Palatine by Eva Scott
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
These stories offered agency: Evil cabals could be defeated.
From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2021
“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
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
They caballed, traduced the Baron, and he fell into disgrace.
From After London Or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
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
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
For this end alone they consulted, and caballed, and calculated, and junketed; and the Lecompton Constitution, with the Schedule annexed, was the worthy fruit of their labors.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 06, April, 1858 by Various
He was the Keeper of George III.'s conscience, until he caballed against Mr. Pitt, and was unceremoniously turned out by him.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 45, July, 1861 by Various
Henry Kissinger happened to be visiting London at the time and witnessed the caballing against her.
From Newsweek ● Apr. 8, 2013
By dint of caballing, he succeeded in obtaining an open competition for the work in question; whoever chose, was at liberty to send in his picture, and the best would obtain the preference.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 by Various
A man of real Merit cannot connect himself with those who are addicted to caballing; and yet such are the Persons, who frequently conduct others.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot
It is this:—"You know their promptitude in writing, and their diligence in caballing; to write, speak, or act against them will only stimulate them to new efforts."
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
While Bolingbroke and his confederates were caballing and counselling, and paltering and drinking, the Whig statesmen were maturing their plans, and when the moment came for action it found them ready to act.
From A History of the Four Georges, Volume I by Justin McCarthy
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.
