as in zealot
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Recent Examples of cultist
These are artifacts for cultists, to be sure, but how big is the clique that has been waiting to hear all this unvaulted material?
—
Chris Willman, Variety, 17 Feb. 2026
Islamists battled for their own theocratic nation, and bands of Christian cultists—whom locals, naming them according to their most notorious act, called chop-chop—severed the heads of those deemed unholy in villages and towns across Mindanao.
—Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Watch Krampus on Peacock The Lodge A happy holiday turns cold when two children are snowed in during Christmas at a remote winter cabin with their soon-to-be stepmother (Riley Keough), whose visions of her cultist past trigger terrifying behavior for the trio in this 2019 horror thriller.
—Lydia Price, PEOPLE, 23 Dec. 2025
Peeking through shattered windows and cracks in the walls, Katja witnesses cultists driving metal spikes into their flesh and hanging themselves from hooks like the Cenobites from Hellraiser in an attempt to drive away the allure of sleep with unadulterated pain.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 3 Dec. 2025
The PayPal cofounder then turns South Park into a surveillance state, commandeering all the students' data to compile a list of cultists.
—Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly, 16 Oct. 2025
His obsession with the numbers results in Thiel turning South Park into a surveillance state and commandeering all the students’ data to compile a list of cultists.
—Glenn Garner, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2025
Apparently hard for the average social media cultists to understand.
—Alia Shoaib, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Oct. 2025
Documentaries like The Vow and Escaping Twin Flames expose the cults among us, and fictional accounts like The Girls and The Last Housewife dive deep into the cultist’s psyche.
—Literary Hub, 20 May 2025
Chris Willman, Variety, 17 Feb. 2026
Islamists battled for their own theocratic nation, and bands of Christian cultists—whom locals, naming them according to their most notorious act, called chop-chop—severed the heads of those deemed unholy in villages and towns across Mindanao.
—Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Watch Krampus on Peacock The Lodge A happy holiday turns cold when two children are snowed in during Christmas at a remote winter cabin with their soon-to-be stepmother (Riley Keough), whose visions of her cultist past trigger terrifying behavior for the trio in this 2019 horror thriller.
—Lydia Price, PEOPLE, 23 Dec. 2025
Peeking through shattered windows and cracks in the walls, Katja witnesses cultists driving metal spikes into their flesh and hanging themselves from hooks like the Cenobites from Hellraiser in an attempt to drive away the allure of sleep with unadulterated pain.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 3 Dec. 2025
The PayPal cofounder then turns South Park into a surveillance state, commandeering all the students' data to compile a list of cultists.
—Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly, 16 Oct. 2025
His obsession with the numbers results in Thiel turning South Park into a surveillance state and commandeering all the students’ data to compile a list of cultists.
—Glenn Garner, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2025
Apparently hard for the average social media cultists to understand.
—Alia Shoaib, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Oct. 2025
Documentaries like The Vow and Escaping Twin Flames expose the cults among us, and fictional accounts like The Girls and The Last Housewife dive deep into the cultist’s psyche.
—Literary Hub, 20 May 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cultist
Noun
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Lydia, naturally, has her own reasons for pairing Agnes and Daisy together, evolving from a ruthless zealot and disciplinarian in Handmaid’s Tale into a kind of double agent looking to overthrow Gilead from within the hallowed halls of power in Testaments, as the finale set her up to do.—
Max Gao,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Mar. 2026
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The brightest spots are painted by Peter Diamandis, a technology zealot who makes the case for AI infusing humanity with once-unfathomable superpowers.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
3 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Becoming fundamentalist Katie, who asked that her last name not to be published for privacy concerns, was born in Texas, deep in the Bible Belt of the Southern United States.—
Rachel Clarke,
CNN Money,
22 Feb. 2026
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Zig-zagging from a tactical fundamentalist in Amorim to the ultimate pragmatist in the former England boss makes a degree of sense for a club desperate to find stability and show progress.—
Peter South,
New York Times,
5 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cultist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cultist. Accessed 11 Mar. 2026.
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