cult
/kʌlt/noun, adjective
cult is spelled C-U-L-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cult means “The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cult is cults.
How many letters and syllables are in cult?
| Letters | 4: C-U-L-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,138th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is cult?
Cult appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cult?
- /kʌlt/
- [kʰʌlt]
- /ˈkɒlt/
Cult has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cult.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with cult
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of cult
- cults plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cult mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint; a subset of worship.
imperial cult
- 2
informalA group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.
the heavy metal cult
- 3
derogatoryA group, sect or movement following an unorthodox religious or philosophical system of beliefs, especially one in which members remove and exclude themselves from greater society, including family members not part of the cult, and show extreme devotion to a charismatic leader.
Two former cult members explain the difficulties they had extricating themselves from it.
adjective
- 1
Of or relating to a cult.
- 2
Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
a cult horror movie
- 3
Alternative form of kvlt.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cult in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | culte , secte |
| German | Kult, Kultus , Sekte , Kult-, kultig |
| Portuguese | culto, veneração , seita , cult , cultual |
| Spanish | veneración , secta , de culto |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cult come from?
Derived from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).