Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sect |
SectNoun1. A subdivision of a larger religious group. 2. A dissenting clique. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sect" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Bible | Sect (Gr. hairesis, usually rendered "heresy", Acts 24:14; 1 Chr. 11:19; Gal. 5:20, etc.), meaning properly "a choice," then "a chosen manner of life," and then "a religious party," as the "sect" of the Sadducees (Acts 5:17), of the Pharisees (15:5), the Nazarenes, i.e., Christians (24:5). It afterwards came to be used in a bad sense, of those holding pernicious error, divergent forms of belief (2 Pet. 2:1; Gal. 5:20). Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A sect is a small religious group that has branched off of a larger established religion. Sects have many beliefs and practices in common with the religion that they have broken off from, but are differentiated by a number of doctrinal differences. In contrast, a denomination is a large, well established religious group.
The word sect comes from the Latin secta, meaning an organized religious body or organization, from Latin, meaning a course of action or way of life.
Sociologists use the word sect to refer to a religious group with a high degree of tension with the surrounding society, but whose beliefs are (within the context of that society) largely traditional. A cult, by contrast, also has a high degree of tension with the surrounding society, but its beliefs are (within the context of that society) new and innovative. Sects, in the sociological sense, are generally traditionalist and conservative, seeking to return a religion to its (perceived) religious purity.
In European languages (other than English) the word 'sect' is used to refer to a dangerous religious sect, similar to how English-speakers popularly use the word 'cult'.
See Also
- denomination
- ecclesia
External Links
- 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.
- [1] : French state investigation about sects in France (1995 - French)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sect."
Synonyms: SectSynonyms: faction (n), religious order (n), religious sect (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Class | Kind, sort, genus, species, variety, family, order, kingdom, race, tribe, caste, sept, clan, breed, type, subtype, kit, sect, set, subset; assortment; feather, kidney; suit; range; gender, sex, kin. |
Theology | Noun: theology (natural and revealed); theogony, theosophy; divinity; hagiology, hagiography; Caucasian mystery; monotheism; religion; religious persuasion, religious sect, religious denomination; creed; (belief); article of faith, declaration of faith, profession of faith, confession of faith. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Springfield has been overrun by a strange and almost certainly evil sect, calling themselves The Movementarians (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) That woman is a member of the Etori sect amongst the Geminese (Battlestar Galactica; writing credit: Glen A. Larson) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | 28th Division exibition [sic] bayonet drill in honor Sect. Lansing, Camp Hancock, Ga., Capt. Ryan, Division Supt., Capt. Stackpole, Division Instructor. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Friedrich Nietzsche | Even today a crude sort of persecution is all that is required to create an honorable name for any sect, no matter how indifferent in itself. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | A sect or party is an incognito devised to save man from the vexation of thinking. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | But if all the world shall observe pretences of one kind, and actions of another; arts used to elude the law, and the trust of prerogative (which is an arbitrary power in some things left in the prince's hand to do good, not harm to the people) employed contrary to the end for which it was given: if the people shall find the ministers and subordinate magistrates chosen suitable to such ends, and favoured, or laid by, proportionably as they promote or oppose them: if they see several experiments made of arbitrary power, and that religion underhand favoured, (tho' publicly proclaimed against) which is readiest to introduce it; and the operators in it supported, as much as may be; and when that cannot be done, yet approved still, and liked the better: if a long train of actions shew the councils all tending that way; how can a man any more hinder himself from being persuaded in his own mind, which way things are going; or from casting about how to save himself, than he could from believing the captain of the ship he was in, was carrying him, and the rest of the company, to Algiers, when he found him always steering that course, though cross winds, leaks in his ship, and want of men and provisions did often force him to turn his course another way for some time, which he steadily returned to again, as soon as the wind, weather, and other circumstances would let him? Sect. (Second Treatise of Government) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | Then, she might have come down to us in history, hand in hand with Ann Hutchinson, as the foundress of a religious sect. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | I computed the number of our people, by reckoning how many millions there might be of each religious sect, or political party among us. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Libya | In an apparent effort to eliminate all alternative power bases, the Government has banned the once powerful Sanusiyya Islamic sect. (references) |
Indonesia | The Government in some provinces has banned the messianic Islamic sect Darul Arqam; the Government also bans the Al-Ma'Unah school in some provinces. (references) | |
Austria | In April 1999, the OVP convention formally accepted a decision made by the party's executive board in 1997 that party membership is incompatible with membership in a sect. (references) | |
Discrimination | Oman | The 1996 Basic Charter prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, ethnic origin, race, religion, language, sect, place of residence, and social class; however, decrees to implement its provisions have not been promulgated. (references) |
Economic History | Lebanon | Shi'a Muslims make up the single largest sect. (references) |
Vanuatu | John Frum, a syncretic sect, also is important on Tanna Island. (references) | |
Human Rights | Malaysia | However, the Essential Regulations were invoked in September 2000 at the beginning of the trial of 29 members of the Al-Ma'unah sect accused of carrying out arms thefts at two army posts in July 2000. Defense lawyers argued that the use of the Essential Regulations was unconstitutional, since no certificate of emergency declaring a national emergency had been issued. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | EUCHARIST, n. A sacred feast of the religious sect of Theophagi. A dispute once unhappily arose among the members of this sect as to what it was that they ate. In this controversy some five hundred thousand have already been slain, and the question is still unsettled. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Sect" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.49% of the time. "Sect" is used about 228 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) | 96.49% | 220 | 20,356 |
| Unclassified Items | 1.32% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.88% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.88% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.44% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 228 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "sect": amish sect ♦ Cyrenaic sect ♦ Hedonic sect ♦ Ionic sect ♦ religious sect. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "sect": sect-type. | |
Ending with "sect": sub-sect. | |
| 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. |
| Language | Translations for "sect"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | sekt. (various references) | |
Arabic | فرقة (band, brigade, choir, command, squad, troupe), طائفة (brotherhood, church, communion, confession, congregation, denomination, fellowship, persuasion, religion, sodality), شيعة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | секта (denomination, persuasion, society). (various references) | |
Chinese | 教派 , 派系 , 宗派 , 宗 (ancestor, family, model, purpose, school), 学派. (various references) | |
Czech | sekta. (various references) | |
Danish | sekt. (various references) | |
Dutch | sekte. (various references) | |
Esperanto | sekto. (various references) | |
Farsi | فرقه (Heresy), مکتب فلسفی , مسلک , قسمت کردن , قسمت (Arm, Canto, Chapter, Compartment, Department, Detachment, Division, Dole, Flat, Grist, Internode, Leg, Lot, Parcel, Party, Percentage, Piece, Plank, Portion, Proportion, Rasher, Ratio, Section, Segment, Share, Slice), حزب (Junta, Party), دسته مذهبی , دسته (A, Administration, Army, Batch, Covey, Detachment, Hand, Handle, Helm, Hilt, Horde, Host, Ilk, Parcel, Party, School, Section, Set, Shaft, Sheaf, Shog, Skein, Squad, Stack, Stem, Stud, Team, Usurer), بخش (Borough, Branch, Canton, Commune, County, Department, District, Division, Installment, Item, Leg, Lot, Member, Parcel, Parish, Part, Party, Piece, Portion, Precinct, Quarter, Role, Section, Sector, Segment, Share, Zone), بریدن (Amputate, Carve, Chop, Cut, Cutback, Cutoff, Dock, Gash, Hack, Haggle, Hew, Intercept, Mangle, Rase, Rift, Sever, Shear, Slice, Sliver, Stag, Stump, Sunder, Whittle). (various references) | |
Finnish | uskonlahko, lahko (denomination, order). (various references) | |
French | secte. (various references) | |
German | Sekte (denomination). (various references) | |
Greek | αίρεση (clause, denomination, heresy). (various references) | |
Hebrew | פל' (branch, faction, half, section, segment), כת (class, company, denomination, faction, party, sectarian), סקט". (various references) | |
Hungarian | szekta (bible-christians, faction, holy rollers). (various references) | |
Indonesian | sempalan, mazhab. (various references) | |
Italian | setta (cult, denomination). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 末派 (underling), 教派 (denomination), 宗門 (creed, doctrine), 宗派 (denomination), 宗派 (denomination), 宗旨 (tenetsof a religious sect), 宗 , 学派 (school), 分派 (branch, denominations, faction, separation from). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | がくは (school), しゅうも" (creed, doctrine), しゅうは (amorous glance, cycle, denomination, frequency, wave, wink), しゅうし (autumnal melancholy, beginning and end, cessation, compilation of a history, consistent, doing a thing from beginning to end, from beginning to end, income and expenditure, lonely feeling of fall, Masters degree program, stop, tenetsof a religious sect, termination), しゅう (Chou, circuit, circumference, collection, dried meat, dry up, great number, lap, masses, province, state, the people, vicinity, week), きょうは (denomination), まっぱ (underling), ぶ"ぱ (branch, denominations, faction, separation from). (various references) | |
Korean | 분파 (Offset). (various references) | |
Manx | sheshaght scarree. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ectsay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | seita (denomination). (various references) | |
Romanian | sectã (denomination), parte (aspect, corner, district, flank, fragment, hand, joint, lot, movement, neighborhood, neighbourhood, part, Parthian, partition, party, passus, piece, proportion, region, section, segment, share, side, snack, whack, zone). (various references) | |
Russian | секта (sects). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sekta (schism). (various references) | |
Spanish | secta (denomination, persuasion). (various references) | |
Swedish | sekt (denomination). (various references) | |
Turkish | tarikat (cult, denomination, order, religion, religious order), mezhep (creed, cult, denomination, doctrine, order, religion, sectarian), hizip (cabal, clique, faction, in-group, splinter group), cemaat (boodle, caboodle, communion, community, congregation, crowd, flock, fold, parish, troop). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | секта, церква (church, temple), напрям (bearings, course, direction, lay, line, range, road, school, set, tack, tenor, tide, trend). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | môn phái, giáo phái, bè phái (faction). (various references) | |
Welsh | sect, enwad (denomination). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | secta. (various references) |
| Late Latin | 300-700 | secta. (various references) |
| Arabic | 500-Modern | shi'ah. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Acts Chapter 26, Verse 5 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | ProginwskonteV me anwqen ean qelwsin marturein oti kata thn akribestathn airesin thV hmeteraV qrhskeiaV ezhsa farisaioV |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Praescientes me ab initio si velint testimonium perhibere quoniam secundum certissimam sectam nostrae religionis vixi Pharisaeus |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | If thei wolen bere witnessing, that bi the moost certeyn sect of oure religioun, Y lyuede a Farisee. |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | Which knew me from ye beginnynge yf they wolde testifie it. For after the most straytest secte of oure laye lyved I a pharisaye. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | Who knew me from the beginning, (if they would testify) that after the strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And they are able to say, if they would give witness, that I was living as a Pharisee, in that division of our religion which is most regular in the keeping of the law. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Acts Chapter 26, Verse 5 |
| Albanian | Ata më njohin qysh atëherë dhe mund të dëshmojnë, po deshën, se kam jetuar si farise, sipas sektit më të drejtë të fesë sonë. |
| Cebuano | Ila nang nahibaloan sulod sa hataas nga panahon, kon ikahimuot pa lang unta nila ang pagtug-an niini, nga sumala sa labing istrikto nga pundok sa atong tinoohan, ako nagkinabuhi nga usa ka Fariseo. |
| Croatian | Poznaju me odavna te mogu, ako samo hoæe, svjedoèiti da sam po najstrožoj sljedbi naše vjere živio kao farizej. |
| Finnish | He tuntevat minut jo entuudestaan, jos tahtovat sen todistaa, että minä meidän uskontomme ankarimman lahkon mukaan olen elänyt fariseuksena. |
| French | Ils savent depuis longtemps, s`ils veulent le déclarer, que j`ai vécu pharisien, selon la secte la plus rigide de notre religion. |
| German | die mich von Anbeginn gekannt haben, wenn sie es wollten bezeugen. Denn ich bin ein Pharisäer gewesen, welches ist die strengste Sekte unseres Gottesdienstes. |
| Haitian Creole | Yo konnen m' depi lontan. Epi, si yo vle, yo ka rann temwayaj mwen t'ap viv tankou yon farizyen. Farizyen yo se moun ki pi rèd nan relijyon nou an. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Sudah lama mereka tahu tentang saya. Dan kalau mereka mau, mereka dapat memberi kesaksian bahwa sejak semula saya sudah hidup sebagai orang Farisi dengan menuruti segala peraturannya yang paling ketat di dalam agama kami. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | karena mereka itu kenal patik dari awal, dan jikalau mau, dapatlah mereka itu menyaksikan, bahwa patik sudah hidup seperti seorang Parisi menurut mazhab yang terlebih taat di dalam ibadat patik sekalian. |
| Maori | Mohio tonu ratou ki ahau o mua iho, me i pai ratou ki te whakaatu; ko taku mahi, i whai i ta te titorehanga pakeke rawa o to tatou karakia, i ta te Parihi. |
| Norwegian | da de forut vet om mig, like fra først av, om de bare vil komme frem med sitt vidnesbyrd, at jeg levde efter det strengeste parti av vår gudsdyrkelse, som fariseer. |
| Portuguese | pois me conhecem desde o princípio e, se quiserem, podem dar testemunho de que, conforme a mais severa seita da nossa religião, vivi fariseu. |
| Rumanian | Dacq vor sq mqrturiseascq, ei wtiu dela knceput cq am trqit, ca Fariseu, dupq cea mai kngustq partidq a religiunii noastre. |
| Russian | ПОЙ ЙЪ"БЧОБ ЪОБАФ П'П НОЕ, ЕУМЙ ЪБИПФСФ УЧЙ"ЕФЕМШУФЧПЧБФШ, ЮФП С ЦЙМ ЖБТЙУЕЕН П УФТПЦБКЫЕНХ Ч ОБЫЕН ЧЕТПЙУ ПЧЕ"БОЙЙ ХЮЕОЙА. |
| Shuar | Pariséu ajasan, ni akupeamurin itiurchat ain Ashí takamtsuk tuke umirniuitjai. Nunasha nékainiawai tura wakeruiniakka etserkamnia aintui. |
| Swahili | Wananifahamu kwa muda mrefu, na wanaweza kushuhudia, kama wakipenda, kwamba tangu mwanzo niliishi kama mmoja wa kikundi chenye siasa kali zaidi katika dini yetu, yaani kikundi cha Mafarisayo. |
| Uma | Mahae moto-mile ra'inca gau' -kue. Ane dota-ra, hira' moto ma'ala mpotutura dala ngkatuwu' -ku ngkai lomo' -na, ka'aku' -na tohe'i mpotuku' tudui' to Parisi, to mantata' mpu'u petuku' -ra hi hawe'ea ada agama Yahudi. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sect": sectarian, sectarianism, sectarianisms, sectarianize, sectarianized, sectarianizes, sectarianizing, sectarians, sectaries, sectary, sectile, sectilities, sectility, section, sectional, sectionalism, sectionalisms, sectionally, sectionals, sectioned, sectioning, sections, sector, sectoral, sectored, sectorial, sectoring, sectors, sects. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "sect": bisect, dissect, exsect, insect, intersect, noninsect, prosect, resect, subsect, transect, trisect, vivisect. (additional references) | |
Words containing "sect": antivivisection, antivivisectionist, antivivisectionists, bisected, bisecting, bisection, bisectional, bisectionally, bisections, bisector, bisectors, bisects, dissected, dissecting, dissection, dissections, dissector, dissectors, dissects, exsected, exsecting, exsects, hypophysectomies, hypophysectomize, hypophysectomized, hypophysectomizes, hypophysectomizing, hypophysectomy, insectan, insectaries, insectary, insecticidal, insecticidally, insecticide, insecticides, insectile, insectivore, insectivores, insectivorous, insects, intersected, intersecting, intersection, intersectional, intersections, intersects, microdissection, microdissections, midsection, midsections, noninsecticidal. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sect" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dectp, Esbcd, escat, Escc, esce, Escp, Escs, hect, isec, ject, Neecct, sact, sacto, sbec, sce, scec, scek, scet, sdec, Sebc, Sebt, Seca, secca, seccy, sech, Seck, secr, secs, secta, secti, secty, secut, secyt, Sedco, seec, seece, seeck, seest, seft, seit, sek, sekt, Seku, selt, semt, Seoc, sert, Sesca, sesit, sest, seut, Sewcz, sfec, sgec, shec, sicht, sicth, sicut, sidcot, siec, sitc, smec, snec, soec, spect, src, srec, svec, swec, syec, szec, zec, zect. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "sect" (pronounced se"kt) |
| 4 | s e" k t | dissect, intersect. |
| 3 | -e" k t | affect, bedecked, checked, collect, confect, connect, correct, decked, deflect, deject, detect, direct, disaffect, disconnect, disinfect, disrespect, effect, eject, elect, erect, expect, incorrect, indirect, infect, inflect, inject, inspect, interconnect, interject, misdirect, necked, neglect, overprotect, perfect, protect, rechecked, recollect, reconnect, redirect, reelect, reflect, reinspect, reject, respect, resurrect, select, subject, suspect, trekked, unchecked, wecht, wrecked. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-s-t" | |
-1 letter: sec, set. | |
-2 letters: es, et. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-s-t" | |
+1 letter: caste, cates, celts, cents, cesta, cesti, cetes, chest, cites, coset, cotes, crest, cutes, escot, scent, scute, sects, taces. | |
+2 letters: acutes, ascent, aspect, bisect, cadets, carets, cartes, casket, caster, castes, castle, caters, centas, centos, certes, cestas, cestoi, cestos, cestus, chaste, cheats, cherts, chests, chesty, cheths, chutes, citers, cities, civets, cleats, clefts, closet, comets, comtes, contes, corset, cosets, cosset, costae, costed, coster, covets, coyest, crates, crests, cruets, cruset, cuesta, culets, curets, cutest, cutesy, cuteys, cuties, eclats, edicts, educts, ejects, elects, enacts, encyst, epacts, erects, eructs, escort, escots, etches, ethics, evicts, exacts, exsect, facets, gestic, iciest, incest, insect, itches, nicest, octets, reacts, recast, rectos, rectus, recuts, resect, sachet, scathe, scents, scoter, scutes, scythe, secant, secret, sector, select, septic, sketch, socket, stacte, stance, stelic, stench, steric, taches, terces, traces, trices, truces, tusche, wechts. | |
| 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: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Historic | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Bible Trace | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
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