| Library / English Dictionary |
SECT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A subdivision of a larger religious group
Synonyms:
religious order; religious sect; sect
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("sect" is a kind of...):
faith; organized religion; religion (an institution to express belief in a divine power)
Meronyms (parts of "sect"):
convent (a community of people in a religious order (especially nuns) living together)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sect"):
Zurvanism (a Zoroastrian sect that claims Zurvan was the ultimate source of the universe)
Vaudois; Waldenses (a Christian sect of dissenters that originated in southern France in the late 12th century adopted Calvinist doctrines in the 16th century)
Shakers; United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (a celibate and communistic Christian sect in the United States)
Quakers; Religious Society of Friends; Society of Friends (a Christian sect founded by George Fox about 1660; commonly called Quakers)
monastic order; order (a group of person living under a religious rule)
brethren ((plural) the lay members of a male religious order)
Shua; Shuha Shinto (any branch of Shinto other than Kokka)
Kokka; Kokka Shinto (the branch of Shinto recognized as the official state religion of Japan)
Taoism (a Chinese sect claiming to follow the teaching of Lao-tzu but incorporating pantheism and sorcery in addition to Taoism)
Jainism (sect founded in the 6th century BC as a revolt against Hinduism)
Hare Krishna; International Society for Krishna Consciousness; ISKCON (a religious sect founded in the United States in 1966; based on Vedic scriptures; groups engage in joyful chanting of 'Hare Krishna' and other mantras based on the name of the Hindu god Krishna; devotees usually wear saffron robes and practice vegetarianism and celibacy)
sisterhood (a religious society of women who live together as sisters (especially an order of nuns))
Albigenses; Cathari; Cathars (a Christian religious sect in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries; believers in Albigensianism)
High Anglican Church; High Church (a group in the Anglican Church that emphasizes the Catholic tradition (especially in sacraments and rituals and obedience to church authority))
Abecedarian (a 16th century sect of Anabaptists centered in Germany who had an absolute disdain for human knowledge)
Amish sect (an orthodox Anabaptist sect separated from the Mennonites in late 17th century; settled chiefly in southeastern Pennsylvania)
Karaites (a Jewish sect that recognizes only the Hebrew Scriptures as the source of divinely inspired legislation and denies the authority of the postbiblical tradition of the Talmud; the sect arose in Iraq in the eighth century)
Shia; Shiah; Shiah Islam (one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam; mainly in Iran)
Sunni; Sunni Islam (one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam)
Shivaism; Sivaism (a Hindu sect worshiping Shiva)
Saktism; Shaktism (a Hindu sect worshiping Shakti)
Vaishnavism; Vaisnavism (Hindu sect worshiping of Vishnu)
Haredi (any of several sects of Orthodox Judaism that reject modern secular culture and many of whom do not recognize the spiritual authority of the modern state of Israel)
Derivation:
sectarian (belonging to or characteristic of a sect)
sectarian (of or relating to or characteristic of a sect or sects)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A dissenting clique
Synonyms:
faction; sect
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("sect" is a kind of...):
camp; clique; coterie; ingroup; inner circle; pack (an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sect"):
splinter group (a faction or sect that has broken away from its parent organization)
left; left wing (those who support varying degrees of social or political or economic change designed to promote the public welfare)
right; right wing (those who support political or social or economic conservatism; those who believe that things are better left unchanged)
old guard (a faction that is unwilling to accept new ideas)
pro-choice faction (those who argue that the decision to have an induced abortion should be made by the mother)
pro-life faction (those who argue that induced abortion is killing and should be prohibited)
