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Definition: Cult |
CultNoun1. Adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices. 2. An interest followed with exaggerated zeal: "he always follows the latest fads"; "it was all the rage that season". 3. A system of religious beliefs and rituals. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "cult" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The literal and traditional meaning of the word cult, from the Latin cultus, meaning "care" or "adoration", is "a system of religious belief or ritual; or: the body of adherents to same." In formal use, and in non-English European terms, the cognates of the English word "cult" are neutral, and refer mainly to divisions within a single faith, a purpose to which "sect" is put in English. Hence, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant are cults within Christianity.
- This article discusses abusive or destructive cults. See also: cult film, cult television, cult radio.
Since the 1960s, in English-speaking countries, especially in North America, most English speakers have adopted the term in a pejorative sense to denote groups, many of them with religious themes, that exploit their members psychologically and financially using group-based persuasion techniques (sometimes called "mind control"). Unlike legitimate religious movements, cults are characterized by high levels of dependency, exploitation, and compliance with demands of leadership that are unrelated to religion.
The term cult has a technical meaning in the sociology of religions, referring to a religious group with novel beliefs and with a high degree of tension with the surrounding society. This meaning is purely neutral.
90% or more of cult members ultimately leave their group. [2,3]
Definitions of the term "cult," and alternative language
The best characterisation of use of the term cult is that it remains controversial.
- Cults are groups that often exploit members psychologically and/or financially, typically by making members comply with leadership’s demands through certain types of psychological manipulation, popularly called mind control, and through the inculcation of deep-seated anxious dependency on the group and its leaders [1]
- Cult: A group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control . . . designed to advance the goals of the group’s leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community. [7]
Some critics have tried to apply the cult label to legitimate religious movements in an effort to discredit them. Some conservative Christian writers have been particularly quick to call any religious movement that they disagree with a cult. There are also some spiritually abusive churches that have many cultlike characteristics, but are not cults. The largest cults are well-financed and have active, ongoing public relations efforts. A major goal of these efforts is to load the language (see below) by broadening the popular definition of a cult to the point where the term becomes meaningless.
Such groups often defend their position by comparing themselves to more established, mainstream religious groups such as Catholicism and Judaism. The argument offered in this case can usually be simplified as, "Christianity and Judaism can also be defined as cults under some definitions of the term, therefore the term cult is superfluous and useless."
Some serious researchers of religion and sociology prefer to use terms such as new religious movement in their research on cults. Such usage may lead to confusion because there do exist fringe religious movements that are not abusive, and some groups appear non-religious or deny similiarities to religion.
Psychologists and other mental health professionals use the terms cult, abusive cult, or destructive cult. These are also the most common terms in the popular press.
In their defense, groups labeled as cults often see themselves as persecuted by the anti-cult movement, which (they claim) consists of a number of groups working together to suppress their religious beliefs. Critics of these groups counter with the claim that the popularization of the term "anti-cult groups" is an attempt to construct an elaborate conspiracy theory aimed at fostering pity and support for alleged cult groups.
In French, culte just means "worship"; an association cultuelle is just an association whose goal is to organize worship (and is eligible for tax exemption). The word for "cult" is secte. See false friend.
Important Word Usage Consideration
There is often a marked difference between a word's definition and a word's usage. The definition of the word "cult" applies to all religions; the usage of the word (since the 1960s) applies to a sub-set of religions and groups - those that engage in abusive or criminal behavior, and/or deny their members civil and human rights.
For scholars and professional commentators, the usage of the word "cult" applies to maleficent behavior, and not to belief. For members of competing religions, use of the word is pejorative and applies primarily to rival beliefs (see memes), and only incidentally to behavior. This has caused some religious scholars to prefix the word "abusive" in front of the word "cult" when they write or speak about abusive religious groups.
Historical Examples
Some extreme examples of destructive cults follow:
- In 1978, 914 followers of Jim Jones died in a mass murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. 274 of the dead were children.
- On April 19, 1993, over 70 Branch Davidians, followers of David Koresh, died in a fire in Waco, Texas following a lengthy siege by United States federal law enforcement officials.
- In 1997, 39 followers of the Heaven's Gate cult died in a mass suicide. Male members of the cult underwent castration in preparation for the suicide
- Between 1995 and 1997 74 members of a cult called the Order of the Solar Temple died in mass murder/suicides.
- Aum Shinri Kyo murdered 12 subway passengers with sarin gas in a Tokyo subway. Over 5000 others sufferred injury. The group still operates and has over 7,000 members, though it has changed its name to "Aleph".
Prevalence
As of 1995, between 3,000 and 5,000 cults existed in the United States. [5] The majority of these groups vigorously protest the label "cult" and refuse to be classified as such, but the more well-known and influential of these groups are often viewed as "cults" by the public at large. These groups often expend large amounts of energy and money engaging in public relations campaigns to rid themselves of the association with the term "cult." A number of these groups appear in the Wikipedia list of purported cults.
Shared Practices
While the religious, philosophical, and spiritual beliefs vary widely from one cult to the next, the actions of cults show striking similarities. Many published checklists of cult behavior have appeared, and sources differ in the terminology they use and how they group the behaviors together. [1,3,5] Some common items that set abusive cults apart from other organizations include:
Additionally, many cults have the following characteristics, though they are not as unique to cults as the ones listed above:
- Milieu control – Cults seek to control members' sources of information and social interaction. They encourage members to sever communication and relationships with friends and family members.
- Infallibility, or “The Sacred Science” – Cults teach that the chosen philosophy or experiential panacea forms the only possible path to salvation. Cults discourage critical and rational thinking. Persons who question or challenge what the cult offers are denied access or exiled.
- Mystical Manipulation – Cults ascribe events to supernatural influences even where such influences do not exist.
- Demand for purity – Cults have unreachably high standards for the behavior of their members.
- Confession – Even trivial violations of the group’s demand for purity must be confessed immediately and thoroughly, often to a large group.
- Loading the language – Cults redefine common words and use glib thought-terminating catchphrases as an answer to questions.
- Authoritarianism -- Control of the organization stems from an absolute leader or a small circle of elite commanders. Often the cult's leadership is glorified with a vast personality cult. The leader may be recognized as divine, or even as God.
- Secret doctrines - certain "secret" (esoteric) teachings that must not ever be revealed to the outside world
- Promised Ones - members of the cult are encouraged to believe they were chosen, or made their choice to join the cult, because they are special or superior
- Fire and Brimstone - leaving the cult, or failing at one's endeavor to complete the requirements to achieve its panacea, will result in consequences greater than if one had never joined the cult in the first place.
- Shunning -- members who leave may not contact members who remain.
External Links
Note: The Internet offers a great deal of material beyond the following list:
- Apologetics Index: research resources on cults, sects, and related issues. The publisher operates from an evangelical Christian point of view, but the site links to and presents a variety of viewpoints.]
- ReligionNewsBlog.com Current news articles about religious cults, sects, and related issues.
- Cult Apologists What you should know about cult defenders.
- http://www.religioustolerance.org/cultmenu.htm. This site offers a sympathetic view of cults.
- Cult Index. An anti-cult site.
- Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF), by Isaac Bonewits. A 15-point checklist of the factors that the author suggests can be used for personal evaluation of groups that may be classified as cults.
See also
- New Religious Movement
- mind control
- brainwashing
- deprogramming
- cargo cult
- purported cults
- homicidal cults
- LGATs
- shunning
- Totalitarian religious group
References
- 1 William Chambers, Michael Langone, Arthur Dole & James Grice, "The Group Psychological Abuse Scale: A Measure of the Varieties of Cultic Abuse", Cultic Studies Journal, 11(1), 1994. The definition of a cult given above is based on a study of 308 former members of 101 groups.
- 2 Barker E. "The Ones Who Got Away: People Who Attend Unification Church Workshops and Do Not Become Moonies". In: Barker E, ed. Of Gods and Men: New Religious Movements in the West. Macon, Ga. : Mercer University Press; 1983.
- 3 Galanter M. "Unification Church ('Moonie') dropouts: psychological readjustment after leaving a charismatic religious group". Am J Psychiatry. 1983;140(8):984-989.
- 4 Enroth, Ronald. Churches that Abuse
- 5 Singer, M with Lalich, J (1995). Cults in Our Midst, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- 6 Aronoff, Jodi; Lynn, Steven Jay; Malinosky, Peter. “Are cultic environments psychologically harmful?” Clinical Psychology Review, 2000, Vol. 20 #1 pp. 91-111
- 7 West, L. J., & Langone, M. D. (1985). Cultism: A conference for scholars and policy makers. Summary of proceedings of the Wingspread conference on cultism, September 9–11. Weston, MA: American Family Foundation.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Cult."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A cult film is a movie that attracts a small but devoted group of obsessive fanss or one that has remained popular over successive years amongst a small group of followers. Often the film failed to achieve mainstream success on its original release, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the audience response to a cult film is somewhat different to what was intended by the film-makers, although usually a film that becomes "cult" started-out with unusual elements or subject matter.
A film reaches cult status due to an audience's relationship to the film. This makes the designation of cult status to a film difficult, however continued success amongst a subset of moviegoers many years after the film's original release is a key defining factor.
Many cult films are from such genres as horror, science fiction and world cinema. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which combines the elements of science fiction, horror—not to mention transvestitism, incest and homosexuality—and, amazingly, is a musical, is considered by many the first true and seminal cult film.
The construction of meaning within the cult film text, and the nature and epistemology of cult film (and also its audiences), however, are now studied academically.
An instance of how cults differ between societies include the elevation of the British comedy film actor Norman Wisdom into a cult icon in Albania during the years of Communism under Enver Hoxha, at a time when his family-friendly style almost certainly ensured that 'cult' would be the last term on earth to be applied to him in the West. Curiously he and his films are now acquiring nostalgic cult status in Britain.
See also: cult television, cult radio
Selected List of Cult Films
- 2001 - A Space Odyssey
- Abba - The Movie
- The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension
- Apocalypse Now
- Army of Darkness
- Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
- Bad Taste
- Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
- Blade Runner
- The Blues Brothers
- Boxing Helena
- Braindead
- Brazil
- The Breakfast Club
- Clue
- The Day The Earth Stood Still
- Dark Star
- Dazed And Confused
- The Draughtsman's Contract
- Dr. Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Drowning by Numbers
- Donnie Darko
- Eraserhead
- Evil Dead
- Fight Club
- The Graduate
- Grand Illusion
- The Gods Must Be Crazy
- Harold and Maude
- Heathers
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch
- Henry--Portrait of a Serial Killer
- If
- Incubus
- The Italian Job
- It's a Wonderful Life
- James Bond series
- Koyaanisqatsi
- Little Shop of Horrors
- The Man Who Fell To Earth
- Mars Attacks
- The Matrix
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Monty Python's Life of Brian
- Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
- Motel Hell
- Meet The Feebles
- Paris, Texas
- Pink Floyd's The Wall
- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
- The Princess Bride
- The Producers
- Pulp Fiction
- Raising Arizona
- Reefer Madness aka Tell Your Children
- Repo Man
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Silent Running
- Solaris
- The Sound of Music
- St. Elmo's Fire
- Santa Sangre
- Star Wars series
- This Is Spinal Tap
- This Island Earth
- Tommy (the Who rock opera)
- TRON
- The Wicker Man
- Withnail and I
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
- The Wizard of Speed and Time
- Yellow Submarine
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Cult film."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Cult television, like cult film and cult radio, attracts a hardy band of aficionados who have diverse opinions as to the cult status or otherwise of particular offerings. (For a fuller discussion of this sense of "cult", see cult film.)A list of programmes that achieved cult television status might include:
- The A-Team
- The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr
- Babylon 5
- Battlestar Galactica
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Cleopatra 2525
- Digimon
- Doctor Who
- Farscape
- Futurama
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
- Lexx
- Mystery Science Theater 3000
- Prisoner
- Robotech
- Sailor Moon
- Seven Days
- The Prisoner
- The Simpsons
- Star Trek
- Twin Peaks
- The X-Files
- Xena: Warrior Princess
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Cult television."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
CULT | Dutch | Commissie cultuur, jeugd, onderwijs, media en sport | European Union |
CULT | English | Chinese University Language Translator | N/A |
CULT | French | Commission de la culture, de la jeunesse, de l'éducation, des médias et des sports | European Union |
CULT | Italian | Commissione per la cultura, la gioventù, l'istruzione, i mezzi d'informazione e lo sport | European Union |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: CultSynonyms: craze (n), fad (n), furor (n), furore (n), rage (n), religious cult (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Worship | Prayer, invocation, supplication, rogation, intercession, orison, holy breathing; (request); collect, litany, Lord's prayer, paternoster; beadroll; latria, dulia, hyperdulia, vigils; revival; cult; anxious meeting, camp meeting; ebenezer, virginal. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Cult |
| English words defined with "cult": corrupting, cultist, Cultus ♦ dean, degrading ♦ hoodooism ♦ James Byron Dean, James Dean ♦ macumba ♦ Shinto ♦ vodoun, voodoo, voodooism. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "cult": cargo cult programming ♦ II ♦ Kool Aid, to drink the ♦ Radiesthesia ♦ SCSI voodoo ♦ voodoo programming. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Cult" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Romanian (creed, cult, cultivated, cultured, educated, religion, well educated, well informed, well read, worship). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | George Washington was in a cult, and the cult was into aliens, man (Dazed and Confused; writing credit: Richard Linklater) Isn't that like a cult or something (Six Feet Under; writing credit: David Starkey) It's a cult, like the Moonies, or the homeless (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) Oh, yes, yes, it's a cult. There are always cults, Caesar (I, Claudius; writing credit: Robert Graves; Jack Pulman) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Love Cult (1970) Cult of the Cobra (1955) The Acrobatic Sex Cult (2000) Zombie Cult Massacre (1997) Indian Fetish Cult (1997) | |
Song Titles | Lost In Emotion (performing artist: Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam) Head To Toe (performing artist: Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam) All Cried Out (performing artist: Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Civilization builders. Strangely beautiful and growing cult of dog and cat worshippers. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Nashi priest during naga cult ceremony, Yunan province, China. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Kitty food" by Bobbie Osborne Commentary: "This little bird fell out of it's nest about 2 days ago. It's mother is still feeding it so I have told my kids they can't rescue it. Every morning I expect it to have not survived the night. Today we spent about an hour chasing it around the neighborhood" |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | At a September news conference, a Tibetan government official compared Chinese actions in Tibet to foreign governments' responses to cult activity. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Saint Lucia | The two men were believed to be Rastafarians and members of an anti-Catholic cult. (references) |
Turkmenistan | The obsessive focus of the media on President Niyazov intensified during the year and amplified the cult of personality centered around the President. (references) | |
France | Although the Government instructed the MILS to analyze "the phenomenon of cults," its decree did not define the term cult or distinguish cults from religions. (references) | |
Economic History | Madagascar | Many incorporate the cult of the dead with their religious beliefs and bless their dead at church before proceeding with the traditional burial rites. (references) |
Vanuatu | The belief in a mythical messianic figure named John Frum was the basis for an indigenous cargo cult (a movement attempting to obtain industrial goods through magic) promising Melanesian deliverance. (references) | |
Human Rights | Korea | The cult approaches the level of a state religion. (references) |
Political Economy | Turkmenistan | The media further intensified its focus on President Niyazov, the subject of a personality cult throughout the country. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | II., De Clem., and C. Stantatus, De Temperamente) if it is not a god; and as such we know it was worshiped by the Etruscans, and, if we may believe Macrobious, by the Cupasians also. Of the only two animals admitted into the Mahometan Paradise along with the souls of men, the ass that carried Balaam is one, the dog of the Seven Sleepers the other. This is no small distinction. From what has been written about this beast might be compiled a library of great splendor and magnitude, rivalling that of the Shakespearean cult, and that which clusters about the Bible. It may be said, generally, that all literature is more or less Asinine. "Hail, holy Ass!" the quiring angels sing; "Priest of Unreason, and of Discords King!" Great co-Creator, let Thy glory shine: God made all else, the Mule, the Mule is thine!" G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Cult" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.77% of the time. "Cult" is used about 806 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.77% | 788 | 8,787 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.24% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.5% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.37% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Unclassified Items | 0.12% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 806 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "cult": cargo cult programming ♦ cult figure ♦ cult of personality ♦ Cult of the Dead Cow ♦ fertility cult ♦ mass cult ♦ personality cult ♦ religious cult ♦ sun cult. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "cult": cult-associated, cult-centres, cult-communities, cult-figure, cult-image, Cult-jah, cult-like, cult-littered, cult-poet, cult-sign, cult-song, cult-statue, cult-statues, Cult-turned-flagship, cult-viewing. | |
Ending with "cult": saint-cult. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
cult | 1,135 | mormon cult | 43 |
cult of kefka | 503 | sex cult | 43 |
blue oyster cult | 494 | blue cult don fear lyrics oyster reaper t | 42 |
the cult | 418 | christian cult | 32 |
blue cult jean | 218 | vampire cult | 29 |
satanic cult | 184 | cult laci murder peterson peterson scott | 29 |
cult movie | 147 | cult and religion | 28 |
blue cult | 123 | cult classics | 28 |
religious cult | 121 | cult of personality | 28 |
sugar cult | 118 | blue cult oyster tab | 25 |
lisa lisa cult jam | 109 | cinema cult european | 22 |
blue cult lyrics oyster | 109 | seventh day adventist cult | 22 |
cult of the dead cow | 99 | jehovah witness cult | 22 |
cult riding | 97 | sugar cult lyrics | 21 |
cult defense modesto peterson taina team theory | 83 | cult list | 19 |
cult of kefka rom | 69 | cult of luna | 18 |
the cult lyrics | 61 | cult tv | 18 |
cult film | 54 | cult video | 18 |
cult gate heavens | 53 | cult definition | 16 |
cult sonic | 48 | cult lotus | 16 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "cult"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | kult (worship), adhurim i tepëruar. (various references) | |
Arabic | عبادة (adoration, devotion, religion, worship), طائفة دينية (connection, connexion), دين (credit, debit, debt, due, faith, judgement, leash, loan, persuasion, religion, score). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | религия (faith, religion), култ (fetish, idolatry, religion, worship), вероизповедание (confession, creed, denomination, dispensation, persuasion, profession), мода (craze, creation, fashion, mode, rage, style, vogue), привърженици на модно течение. (various references) | |
Chinese | 崇拜 (Adoration, Adore, adored, Adoring, Deified, Deify, Deifying, Worship, Worshiped, Worshiping, Worshipped, Worshipping). (various references) | |
Czech | kult (mystery). (various references) | |
Dutch | verering, eredienst (church service, service, worship service), cultus. (various references) | |
Esperanto | kulto. (various references) | |
Farsi | مکتب تفکر, هوس وجنون برای تقلیدازرسم فکری , اءین دینی (Sacrament). (various references) | |
Finnish | henkilönpalvonta (personality cult). (various references) | |
French | culte. (various references) | |
Frisian | oanbidding (adoration, worship). (various references) | |
German | Kult (religion, worship). (various references) | |
Greek | μόδα (fashion, mode, trend, vogue), είδοσ λατρείασ, λατρεία (adoration, devotion, worship), τρέλα (aberration, craze, craziness, fad, madness, mania), θρησκεία ανορθόδοξη ή πλαστή. (various references) | |
Hebrew | פולחן (adoration, ritual, worship). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kultusz, vallásos tisztelet. (various references) | |
Indonesian | cara pemujaan, kultus. (various references) | |
Italian | culto (worship), setta (denomination, sect). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 崇拝 (admiration, adoration, worship). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | すうはい (admiration, adoration, worship), カルト (card). (various references) | |
Korean | 숭배 (Worship, Worshiping, Worshipping). (various references) | |
Manx | cultys. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ultcay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | culto (cultivated, cultured, enlightened, refined, service, worship), veneração (dread, regard, reverence, veneration, worship), ritual (agenda, ceremony, consuetudinary, ordinal, prayer book, rite, ritual, service-book). (various references) | |
Romanian | cult (creed, cultivated, cultured, educated, religion, well educated, well informed, well read, worship). (various references) | |
Russian | культ (religion, worship). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | kult. (various references) | |
Spanish | culto (church service, cultivated, cultured, educated, enlightened, learned, nice, service, well bred, worship, worship service), educado (educated, mannerly, polite, trained, well mannered), bueno (all right, alright, cheering, convenient, cosy, cozy, decent, enjoyable, fair, fine, glad, good, goodly, Goody, hallo, hearty, hello, high, hullo, kind, kindly, nice, okay, plenteous, plentiful, right, strong, useful, well, what, whatever). (various references) | |
Swedish | kult (mystique), dyrkan (adoration, idolatry, idolization, worship). (various references) | |
Turkish | tutku (addiction, ambition, bug, crush, desire, dotage, fervency, indulgence, pash, passion, penchant, rage), tarikat (denomination, order, religion, religious order, sect), tapınma (adoration, deification, image-worship, worshipping), mezhep (creed, denomination, doctrine, order, religion, sect, sectarian), inanç (affiance, belief, confidence, conscience, conviction, credence, credo, creed, dogma, faith, faithfulness, opinion, opinions, persuasion, positiveness, reliance, religion, tenet), heves (alacrity, ambition, anxiety, Ardor, ardour, brio, desire, eagerness, enthusiasm, fad, fancy, fit, freak, furor, furore, grace, inclination, itch, keenness, maggot, nine days' wonder, notion, relish, stomach, studiousness, whim, whimsey, whimsy, zeal). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | культ (religion, worship), віросповідання (church, creed, persuasion, profession), обожнювання (adoration, apotheosis, canonization, deification, dotage, idolatry, worship), поклоніння (adoration). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự thờ cúng, sự tôn kính (deference, duty, homage, reverence, veneration), sự sùng bái (adoration, deification, idolization), sự cúng bái sự tôn sùng. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | billuda. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | cultu, cultui, cultum, cultus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "cult": cultch, cultches, culti, cultic, cultigen, cultigens, cultish, cultishly, cultishness, cultishnesses, cultism, cultisms, cultist, cultists, cultivabilities, cultivability, cultivable, cultivar, cultivars, cultivatable, cultivate, cultivated, cultivates, cultivating, cultivation, cultivations, cultivator, cultivators, cultlike, cultrate, cults, cultural, culturally, culturati, culture, cultured, cultures, culturing, cultus, cultuses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "cult": anticult, difficult, incult, masscult, midcult, occult, subcult. (additional references) | |
Words containing "cult": acculturate, acculturated, acculturates, acculturating, acculturation, acculturational, acculturations, acculturative, agricultural, agriculturalist, agriculturalists, agriculturally, agriculture, agricultures, agriculturist, agriculturists, anticultural, apicultural, apiculture, apicultures, apiculturist, apiculturists, aquacultural, aquaculture, aquacultures, aquaculturist, aquaculturists, aquiculture, aquicultures, arboricultural, arboriculture, arboricultures, auscultate, auscultated, auscultates, auscultating, auscultation, auscultations, auscultatory, aviculture, avicultures, aviculturist, aviculturists, bicultural, biculturalism, biculturalisms, citriculture, citricultures, citriculturist, citriculturists, cocultivate. (additional references) | |
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"Cult" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: acult, calt, cealt, Celta, cfl, cilt, ciltt, ckl, clu, Cluett, cluj, Clunt, clur, clust, clut, clutz, coltd, colty, cubt, cuft, cuit, Cuitt, cujt, Cula, culch, culd, cule, culf, culit, culn, culo, culot, culp, Culsh, Culte, culti, culy, Cutt, cutv, cuul, fult, kolt, kulit, kult, nult, scult, sult, sut, ucl, ucli, Ucst, Ult. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "cult" (pronounced ku"lt) |
| 4 | k u" l t | occult. |
| 3 | -u" l t | adult, consult, exult, insult, result. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-l-t-u" | |
-1 letter: cut. | |
-2 letters: ut. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-l-t-u" | |
+1 letter: clout, culet, culti, cults, mulct. | |
+2 letters: actual, clouts, clutch, culets, cullet, cultch, cultic, cultus, curtal, curtly, cutely, cutlas, cutler, cutlet, cuttle, ductal, dulcet, incult, locust, lucent, luetic, mulcts, occult, reluct, sculpt, talcum, toluic. | |
+3 letters: acutely, calumet, chalutz, claucht, claught, cloture, clouted, clouter, cluster, clutchy, clutter, consult, couldst, coulter, couplet, courtly, cruelty, crustal, cubital, cuittle, cullets, culotte, culprit, cultish, cultism, cultist, culture, culvert, curtail, curtals, cuticle, cutlass, cutlers, cutlery, cutlets, cutline, cuttled, cuttles, ductile, ductule, dulcets, factful, factual, faculty, lecture, lettuce, leucite, linecut, linocut, locknut, lockout, locusta, locusts, luetics, lunatic, midcult, mulcted, noctule, occults, octuple, octuply, oculist, potluck, relucts, sculpts, scuttle, subcult, sulcate, tactful, tactual, talcous, talcums, truckle, tunicle, unlatch, utricle, victual. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
