[kʌlt], (Noun)

Definitions:
- a relatively small group of people having beliefs or practices, especially relating to religion, that are regarded by others as strange or sinister or as imposing excessive control over members
(e.g: a network of Satan-worshipping cults)

- a person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or section of society
(e.g: the series has become a bit of a cult in the UK)

- a system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object
(e.g: the cult of St Olaf)


Phrases:

Origin:
early 17th century (originally denoting homage paid to a divinity): from French culte or Latin cultus ‘worship’, from cult- ‘inhabited, cultivated, worshipped’, from the verb colere