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Cabal has been associated 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) spelled cabal, and they have been collectively dubbed as the "Cabal Cabinet" or "Cabal Ministry." But these five names are not the source of the word cabal, which was in use decades before Charles II ascended the throne. The term traces back to cabbala, the Medieval Latin name for the Kabbalah, a traditional system of esoteric Jewish mysticism. Latin borrowed Cabbala from the Hebrew qabbālāh, meaning "received or traditional lore."
Examples of cabal in a Sentence
Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025
Somehow, none of it ever tips into ultraseriousness or total absurdity; the audience can both laugh at such inventions as a cabal of white supremacists (named the Christmas Adventurers) and shudder at the kind of power these characters represent.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Dec. 2025
Martin Finucane, BostonGlobe.com, 14 June 2019
Powell is drawing encouragement from the significant losses of candidates who, like Burton, are backed by the Empower Texans cabal attempting to take control of the Texas Legislature.
—Richard Greene, star-telegram, 24 May 2018
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Cite this Entry
“Cabal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabal. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025.
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