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cult.

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.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kʌlt/[kʰʌlt]/ˈkɒlt//ˈkʊlt/

  1. 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

  2. A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.

    informal
    the heavy metal cult
    the cult of basketball

  3. 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.

    derogatory
    Two former cult members explain the difficulties they had extricating themselves from it.
Where this word comes from

Derived from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).

adj/kʌlt/[kʰʌlt]/ˈkɒlt//ˈkʊlt/

  1. Of or relating to a cult.

    not-comparable

  2. Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.

    not-comparable
    a cult horror movie

  3. Alternative form of kvlt.

    alt-of · alternative · neologism · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Derived from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.