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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
Constance Grady, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
Because for nearly a decade, it’s been almost impossible to change the belief and vote of a certain kind of voter — the type ensnared by the right-wing propaganda woven into the cult of Trump.
—Natasha Stoynoff, People.com, 4 Nov. 2024
From demons to death cults, uncaught killers to unsolved disappearances, these genre films have proven that truth is not just stranger, but also scarier than fiction.
—Declan Gallagher and Chris Bellamy, EW.com, 31 Oct. 2024
As a result, the very outcome the founders most feared, namely election of a demagogue by a gullible cult of true-believers, has been made possible because of the Electoral College, which was originally designed to avoid precisely that outcome.
—Joseph J. Ellis, The Mercury News, 31 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for cult 
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Cite this Entry
“Cult.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.
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