cult

American  

[kuhlt] / kʌlt /

noun

• cults
  plural

1. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.

2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially 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.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a cult.

2. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees.

   a cult movie.

cult British  

/ kʌlt /

noun

1. a specific system of religious worship, esp with reference to its rites and deity

2. a sect devoted to such a system

3. a quasi-religious organization using devious psychological techniques to gain and control adherents

4. sociol a group having an exclusive ideology and ritual practices centred on sacred symbols, esp one characterized by lack of organizational structure

5. intense interest in and devotion to a person, idea, or activity

   the cult of yoga

6. the person, idea, etc, arousing such devotion

7. 1. something regarded as fashionable or significant by a particular group

   2. ( as modifier )

      a cult show

8. (modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of a cult or cults

   a cult figure

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cult Cultural  

1. In anthropology, an organization for the conduct of ritual, magical, or other religious observances. Many so-called primitive tribes, for example, have ancestor cults, in which dead ancestors are considered divine and activities are organized to respect their memory and invoke their aid. A cult is also a religious group held together by a dominant, often charismatic individual, or by the worship of a divinity, an idol, or some other object. (See animism (see also animism), fetish, and totemism.)

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Discover More

The term cult often suggests extreme beliefs and bizarre behavior.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anticult
  noun
• cultism
  noun
• cultist
  noun
• cultic
  adjective
• cultish
  adjective
• cultual
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cults
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cult

First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin cultus “habitation, tilling, refinement, worship,” equivalent to cul-, variant stem of colere “to inhabit, till, worship” + -tus, suffix of verb action

Explanation

People argue about whether the major religions of the world are just well-established cults — that, age and size aside, they are no different from any group that follows a spiritual leader. A cult is group of people defined by a "religious" devotion to something — often a self-appointed leader. Most people view cults as strange and frightening, mostly because cults have, over the years, done some strange and frightening things, including murders and mass suicides. Sometimes, too, you'll see cult used as an adjective to describe something or someone with a small, devoted fan-base. John Water's movies are cult favorites, adored by a select group of film lovers but not by the public at large.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cult cults

The more I looked into the cult of Cane’s, the more I understood how the country’s most obsessed-over digit-shaped delicacy took America by storm, slowly and then all at once.

From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026

On paper, the one thing he has going for him is a nickname so retro that it’s practically covered in pine tar and has transformed an otherwise ordinary prospect into an unlikely cult hero.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

“At that time,” he wrote in “The Road to Wigan Pier,” his classic about class and economics, “there was, among the young, a curious cult of hatred of ‘old men.’

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

The brothers produced the 1950s-style spy spoof "OSS 117" series and cult comedy "Brice de Nice", as well as a thriller based on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power, "Conquest".

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

In California and New York, in the advertising world and in Silicon Valley, it became a kind of cult object that matched the stripped-down aesthetic of the new economy.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

Since Niyazov's death in 2006, successive presidents -- Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his son Serdar -- have kept the system in place, along with the cults of personality and grand architecture.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

But cults are generally led by charlatans, so that’s not surprising.

From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026

Richards, who now helps people exit cults, is open about what his former beloved leader did but also takes responsibility for his own behavior.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026

The 1980s, during his own youth, was the heyday for conspiracy theories about satanic cults sacrificing children, Uscinski noted.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026

There are the tone cults, of course, dressing in sackcloth and worshiping sonic vibrations—but like so many things in our world, they seek to imitate what once was.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

Related Words

• band
• church
• clan
• clique
• denomination
• faith
• religion
• sect