cult
English
editEtymology
editFrom French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /kʌlt/, [kʰʌlt]
- (gulf-golf merger) IPA(key): /ˈkɒlt/
- (without the foot-strut split) IPA(key): /ˈkʊlt/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌlt
Noun
editcult (plural cults)
- (chiefly derogatory) 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.
- 1985, Rodney Stark, Religious movements: Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, Paragon House Publishers, →ISBN, page 167:
- 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.
- 1996, John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, Harvest House Publishers, →ISBN, page 216:
- There are scores of modern religious cults and sects that have been influenced by Hinduism to varying degrees. Werner Erhard, founder of 'Landmark Education's 'The Forum',' and 'est' seminars, which have about 700,000 graduates, was influenced by Hinduism through Swami Muktananda, one of Erhard's principal gurus.
- 1997, Len Oakes, “Followers and Their Quest”, in Prophetic charisma: The Psychology of Prophetic Charisma, Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 137:
- Outsiders often criticize the extreme commitment of group members. But what is really happening is that leader and followers are conspiring to realize a vision that is falsified daily. For the cult is not paradise, and the leader is not God. Hence the follower is embattled; to squarely confront the many failings of the leader and the group is to call into question one's own great work. Only by daily recommitting himself can the follower continue to work toward his ultimate goal. Each follower works out a secret compromise, acknowledging some things while denying or distorting others. Clearly this is a high-risk strategy that may go awry.
- 2000, Philip Jenkins, Mystics and Messiahs : Cults and New Religions in American History, London: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 180:
- Another potent element of the new cult milieu was the therapy sect, which offered believers the chance to achieve their full human potential through personal growth and self-actualization by taking total responsibility for one's actions. The prototypical movement of this kind was est (Erhard Seminar Training), in which intense and often grueling sessions forced followers to confront a new view of reality.
- 2016 November 6, “Multilevel Marketing”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 29, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
- He sounds like a cult leader about to demand his followers drink poison. And it frankly doesn’t help that he looks like Jim Jones to a genuinely creepy degree.
- 2023 November 25, Richard Waters, John Thornhill, quoting Marc Andreessen, “Tech's philosophical rift over AI”, in FT Weekend, Big Read, page 6:
- Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist who has become one of Silicon Valley's most outspoken opponents of regulation, has described people who warn of existential risks from AI as a cult, no different from other millenarian movements that warn of impending social disasters.
- The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint.
- the cult of Apollo
- the cult of Mary
- (informal) 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
- the guitarist's cult of loyal fans
- the cult of celebrity
Derived terms
editTranslations
edita sect
|
devotion to a saint
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective
editcult (not comparable)
- Of or relating to a cult.
- Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
- a cult horror movie
- 2008 August 8, Ronald Bergan, “Don't confuse cults with classics”, in The Guardian[3]:
- 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”.
- 2021 April 21, William Grimes, “Monte Hellman, Cult Director of ‘Two-Lane Blacktop,’ Dies at 91”, in The New York Times[4], →ISSN:
- Monte Hellman, whose terse action films, epitomized by the 1971 road movie “Two-Lane Blacktop,” made him a cult hero of the American independent film movement, died on Tuesday in Palm Desert, Calif.
- (neologism, music) Alternative form of kvlt.
Usage notes
editThe term has a positive connotation for groups of art, music, writing, fiction, and fashion devotees, but a negative connotation for new religious, extreme political, questionable therapeutic, and pyramidal business groups.
Translations
editof or relating to a cult
enjoyed by a small, loyal group
See also
editAnagrams
editFriulian
editPronunciation
editNoun
editcult m (plural cults)
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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.
Ladin
editPronunciation
editNoun
editcult m (plural cults)
Piedmontese
editPronunciation
editNoun
editcult m
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
{{rfdef}}
.
Portuguese
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English cult. Doublet of culto.
Pronunciation
edit
Adjective
editcult (invariable)
Romanian
editEtymology
editBorrowed from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editcult n (plural culte)
Declension
editDeclension of cult
Derived terms
editCategories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷel-
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ʌlt
- Rhymes:English/ʌlt/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English informal terms
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English neologisms
- en:Music
- en:Collectives
- Friulian lemmas
- Friulian nouns
- Friulian masculine nouns
- Ladin lemmas
- Ladin nouns
- Ladin masculine nouns
- Piedmontese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Piedmontese lemmas
- Piedmontese nouns
- Piedmontese masculine nouns
- Portuguese terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Portuguese terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷel-
- Portuguese terms borrowed from English
- Portuguese unadapted borrowings from English
- Portuguese terms derived from English
- Portuguese doublets
- Portuguese 1-syllable words
- Portuguese 2-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese adjectives
- Portuguese indeclinable adjectives
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Romanian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Romanian terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷel-
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian terms derived from Latin
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian neuter nouns