cultism

cult  (klt)

n.

1.

a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.

b. The followers of such a religion or sect.

2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.

3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.

5.

a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.

b. The object of such devotion.

6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

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[Latin cultus, worship, from past participle of colere, to cultivate; see k^wel-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

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cultic, cultish adj.

cultism n.

cultist n.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	cultism - devotion to the doctrine or a cult or to the practices of a cult devotion - commitment to some purpose; "the devotion of his time and wealth to science"
	2.	cultism - religious zeal; the willingness to serve God idolatry, veneration, devotion worship - the activity of worshipping Bible-worship, bibliolatry - the worship of the Bible grammatolatry, verbolatry, word-worship - the worship of words symbol-worship, symbolatry, symbololatry - the worship of symbols anthropolatry, worship of man - the worship of human beings gynaeolatry, gyneolatry, woman-worship - the worship of women lordolatry - the worship of a lord because of his rank or title miracle-worship, thaumatolatry - the worship of miracles place-worship, topolatry - the worship of places