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/kult/, n.1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.3. the object of such devotion.4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.5. Sociol. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.7. the members of such a religion or sect.8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.adj.9. of or pertaining to a cult.10. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees: a cult movie.[1610-20; < L cultus habitation, tilling, refinement, worship, equiv. to cul-, var. s. of colere to inhabit, till, worship + -tus suffix of v. action]
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Collective veneration or worship (e.g., the cult of the saintsmeaning collective veneration of the saintsin Roman Catholicism).In the West, the term has come to be used for groups that are perceived to have deviated from normative religions in belief and practice. They typically have a charismatic leader and attract followers who are in some way disenfranchised from the mainstream of society. Cults as thus defined are often viewed as foreign or dangerous.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
