cult
/kʌlt/
cult noun: the veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint; a subset of worship. Also the alternative form of kvlt.
Noun
cult (plural cults)
- The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint; a subset of worship.
- imperial cult
- the cult of Mary
- A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.
- the heavy metal cult
- the cult of basketball
- A group, sect or movement following an unorthodox religious or philosophical system of beliefs, especially one in which members remove and exclude themselves from greater society, including family members not part of the cult, and show extreme devotion to a charismatic leader.
- Two former cult members explain the difficulties they had extricating themselves from it.
- Werner Erhard's highly successful est cult is partly derived from Scientology. Erhard had some experience with Scientology in 1969. Then he worked for a while in Mind Dynamics, itself an offshoot of Jose Silva's Mind Control.1985, Rodney Stark, Religious movements: Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, Paragon House Publishers, →ISBN, page 167
Adjective
cult (not comparable)
- Of or relating to a cult.
- Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
- a cult horror movie
- To a certain extent, the cult movie and the classic are opposites, appealing to vastly different audiences. Whereas a film can become an instant cult, and then forgotten, a film cannot become an “instant classic”, which is only critical shorthand for “excellent”.2008 August 8, Ronald Bergan, “Don't confuse cults with classics”, in The Guardian
Also used as
cult is also the alternative form of kvlt.
cult meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu
cult in Hindi
- sect
- पंथ panth
cult in Marathi
- पंथ
cult in Bengali
- কাল্ট
cult in Telugu
- కల్ట్
More languagesFewer languages
- cult in Nepali
- कल्ट
- cult in Tagalog
- kulto
- cult in Arabic
- طائِفَة ṭāʔifa, فِرْقَة firqa, مِلّة milla
- cult in Malay
- kultus, taifah, sekte, sekta
- cult in Indonesian
- sekte
- cult in Persian
- فرقه ferqe
- cult in Thai
- นิกาย ní-gaai
- cult in Vietnamese
- sự sùng bái, giáo phái
- cult in Myanmar
- နိကာယ ni.kaya.
Examples of cult in a sentence
- the guitarist's cult of loyal fans
- the cult of celebrity
- "When frying sausages," remarked Cripps, who seemed to regard that occupation as a cult, "it is advisable to perforate the outer skin with a fork."1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 44:
- By the end of the tenth century, Edith's humility had inspired a cult of holy wells in Kent, Staffordshire, and Herefordshire.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000...
- There are scores of modern religious cults and sects that have been influenced by Hinduism to varying degrees.1996, John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, Harvest House Publishers, →ISBN, page 216:
- For the cult is not paradise, and the leader is not God.1997, Len Oakes, “Followers and Their Quest”, in Prophetic charisma: The Psychology of Prophetic Charisma, Syracuse University Press...
Forms of cult
| plural | cults |
|---|
Origin of cult
Derived from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).
Words formed from cult
- anticult
- cargo cult
- cargo cult science
- cult 45
- cult archaeology
- cultbuster
- cultdom
- cult film
- cult follower
- cult following
- culthead
- cult hero
- cult hit
- cultic
- cultish
- cultishly
- cultishness
- cultism
- cultist
- cultlike
- cult of personality
- cultship
- cult stock
- culty
- cybercult
- death cult
- doomsday cult
- fertility cult
- imperial cult
- masscult
- megacult
- midcult
- mystery cult
- noncult
- personality cult
- Qult
- sex cult
- subcult
- suicide cult
- trans cult
- witch cult
Phrases with cult
Words that rhyme with cult
3 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about cult
- What does cult mean?
- Cult means the veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint; a subset of worship.
- What is cult in Hindi?
- Cult in Hindi is पंथ (panth). See Cult meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cult in a sentence?
- the guitarist's cult of loyal fans
- What part of speech is cult?
- Cult can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce cult?
- Cult is pronounced /kʌlt/.
- What is the plural of cult?
- The plural of cult is cults.
Words near cult in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cult (page history and authors); cult (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cult (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cult (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cult (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cult.wav.
Cite this entry: “cult.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cult. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.