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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."
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Examples of cabal in a Sentence
Dave Birnbaum, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2024
Hawai`i’s statehood itself results from a treacherous cabal of business interests–Dole among them–conspiring together on a scheme to wrest control of the land away from Native Hawaiians and give it the U.S.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes, 15 Dec. 2024
Adherents of QAnon claim the deep state works with a cabal of pedophile elites to secretly traffic children and harvest a chemical from their blood.
—Audrey Nguyen, NPR, 10 Dec. 2024
The same cabal denied confirmation of Julie Su, a stalwart and exceptionally effective advocate for worker rights throughout a professional career that included service as California Labor Commissioner, as successor to Biden’s first Labor secretary, Marty Walsh.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2024
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“Cabal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabal. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.
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