cabal

noun ca·bal \ kə-ˈbäl , -ˈbal \

|Updated on: 2 Aug 2018

Definition of cabal

1 : the contrived schemes of a group of persons secretly united in a plot (as to overturn a government); also : a group engaged in such schemes

2 : club, group

a cabal of artists

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Examples of cabal in a Sentence

a cabal plotting to overthrow the government
a conspiracy theory about the existence of an international cabal devoted to world domination

Recent Examples of cabal from the Web

American courts have been moving to the right since the 1970s, but that’s because of broad political push by the Republican Party, not just a small cabal of Catholics.

— jeet heer, The New Republic, "Why all the anti-Catholic conspiracy-mongering?," 9 July 2018
The unifying figure is Dollar, who plays a vampire queen named Sophie in a cabal of bickering bloodsuckers.

— noel murray, latimes.com, "Review: Mashup of cameos and mismatched footage doesn't fly in weird vampire flick 'Sunset Society'," 5 July 2018
The fact that a woman of Meghan’s background can become a royal duchess makes the House of Windsor a lottery rather than a cabal.

— daisy goodwin, Time, "How Meghan Markle Is Giving the Royal Family the Shake-Up It Needs," 17 May 2018
Replacing their childhood comedy idols with women was a kind of narrative murder, committed by a cabal of Hollywood moguls and humorless feminists.

— amanda hess, New York Times, "The Trouble With Hollywood’s Gender Flips," 12 June 2018
In Trump’s telling, however, the informant was a spy sent by Obama and a cabal inside his Justice Department and the intelligence community who were bent on stopping his candidacy.

— BostonGlobe.com, "Trump pulls conspiracy theories from the fringes to the Oval Office," 29 May 2018
Mueller’s investigation has dragged on forever and petered out; the real scandal that has come to light is what is being done to Trump by a liberal cabal within the FBI.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "Trump Expects Justice Department to Serve Him Instead of Justice," 28 Jan. 2018
Then, at 22, with my first actual cabal of gay friends, in my loft in Bushwick.

— david levesley, GQ, "This Pride, Let’s All Talk About Gay Porn," 20 June 2018
And the faces of Thanos’s Black Order, his cabal of henchmen, are fearsome and distinct, offering both scintillating powers and copious nightmare fuel.

— alex abad-santos, Vox, "Avengers: Infinity War isn’t the best Marvel movie. But it’s Marvel’s most daring.," 24 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cabal.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In A Child's History of England, Charles Dickens associates the word cabal with a group of five ministers in the government of England's King Charles II. The initial letters of the names or titles of those men (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale) spell cabal, and Dickens dubbed them the "Cabal Ministry." These five men were widely regarded as invidious, secretive plotters and their activities may have encouraged English speakers to associate cabal with high-level government intrigue. But their names are not the source of the word cabal, which was in use decades before Charles II ascended the throne. The term can be traced back through French to cabbala, the Medieval Latin name for the Kabbalah, a traditional system of esoteric Jewish mysticism.

Origin and Etymology of cabal

French cabale cabala, intrigue, cabal, from Medieval Latin cabbala cabala, from Late Hebrew qabbālāh, literally, received (lore)

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1614

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

cabal Synonyms

Synonyms

conspiracy, crew, gang, Mafia, mob, ring, syndicate;

junta, oligarchy;

Synonym Discussion of cabal

plot, intrigue, machination, conspiracy, cabal mean a plan secretly devised to accomplish an evil or treacherous end. plot implies careful foresight in planning a complex scheme.