sect
/sɛkt/ noun
Forms sects
- noun An offshoot of a larger religion or denomination. “a religious sect”
- noun A group following a specific ideal or a leader.
- noun (obsolete) A cutting; a scion.
- noun (astrology, historical) An ancient astrological concept, a form of polarity by which heavenly bodies were designated as either diurnal or nocturnal.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English secte, from Old French secte (“a sect in philosophy or religion”), from Late Latin secta (“a sect in philosophy or religion, a school, party, faction, class, guild, band, particularly a heretical doctrine or sect, etc.”), possibly, from Latin sequi (“to follow”). Alternatively linked to sectus (“cut off, divided”), past participle of secō.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A cutting; a scion. [Obs.] Shak.
- noun Those following a particular leader or authority, or attached to a certain opinion; a company or set having a common belief or allegiance distinct from others; in religion, the believers in a particular creed, or upholders of a particular practice; especially, in modern times, a party dissenting from an established church; a denomination; in philosophy, the disciples of a particular master; a school; in society and the state, an order, rank, class, or party.
Etymology [L. secare, sectum, to cut.]
Etymology [F. secte, L. sects, fr. sequi to follew; often confused with L. secare, sectum, to cut. See Sue to follow, and cf. Sept, Suit, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sect”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details