A system of religious beliefs, rituals, and worship practices followed by a group of people, often referring to a particular sect or devoted following.
From Latin cultus, meaning 'worship' or 'tending to,' derived from colere (to tend, cultivate, revere). The word originally meant the care or cultivation of something sacred, then evolved to mean organized religious observance.
The word cultus is the ancestor of both 'cult' and 'culture'—they all come from the same Latin root meaning 'to tend or care for,' whether that's tending a field, tending to the sacred, or tending to traditions that define how people live together.
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