cult
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A system of religious beliefs and rituals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhltIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkʌlt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A system of religious beliefs and rituals
“Devoted to the cultus of the Blessed Virgin.”
Followers of an exclusive system of beliefs and practices
informal
A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.
adjective
Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
Of or relating to a cult.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A system of religious beliefs and rituals
Used this way, cult is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
“Devoted to the cultus of the Blessed Virgin.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Formal and ceremonial
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “cult of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: cult of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Intense devotion to a particular person.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: system of religious beliefs and rituals
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.