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The Overlap of Cults and Culture
Cult, which shares an origin with culture and cultivate, comes from the Latin cultus, a noun with meanings ranging from "tilling, cultivation" to "training or education" to "adoration." In English, cult has evolved a number of meanings following a fairly logical path. The earliest known uses of the word, recorded in the 17th century, broadly denoted "worship." From here cult came to refer to a specific branch of a religion or the rites and practices of that branch, as in "the cult of Dionysus." By the early 18th century, cult could refer to a non-religious admiration or devotion, such as to a person, idea, or fad ("the cult of success"). Finally, by the 19th century, the word came to be used of "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious."
Examples of cult in a Sentence
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 28 Apr. 2025
To outsiders, however, the scars signify something more sinister, reinforcing the group's reputation as a dangerous cult.
—Mohammed Soliman, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Apr. 2025
The two worked together on Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012), in which Plemons played the son of Hoffman's charismatic cult leader, Lancaster Dodd.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 27 Apr. 2025
After months of probing, investigators had gathered enough evidence to arrest the cult leader and search the 77-acre Mount Carmel compound.
—Emily Blackwood, People.com, 19 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cult
Cite this Entry
“Cult.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult. Accessed 7 May. 2025.
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