RELIGIOUS SECT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does religious sect mean? 

• RELIGIOUS SECT (noun)
  The noun RELIGIOUS SECT has 1 sense:

1. a subdivision of a larger religious group

  Familiarity information: RELIGIOUS SECT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RELIGIOUS SECT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A subdivision of a larger religious group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

religious order; religious sect; sect

Hypernyms ("religious sect" is a kind of...):

faith; organized religion; religion (an institution to express belief in a divine power)

Meronyms (parts of "religious sect"):

convent (a community of people in a religious order (especially nuns) living together)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "religious sect"):

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)

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))

Vaishnavism; Vaisnavism (Hindu sect worshiping of Vishnu)

Saktism; Shaktism (a Hindu sect worshiping Shakti)

Shivaism; Sivaism (a Hindu sect worshiping Shiva)

Sunni; Sunni Islam (one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam)

Shia; Shiah; Shiah Islam (one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam; mainly in Iran)

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)

Amish sect (an orthodox Anabaptist sect separated from the Mennonites in late 17th century; settled chiefly in southeastern Pennsylvania)

Abecedarian (a 16th century sect of Anabaptists centered in Germany who had an absolute disdain for human knowledge)

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))

Albigenses; Cathari; Cathars (a Christian religious sect in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries; believers in Albigensianism)

 Context examples 

I computed the number of our people, by reckoning how many millions there might be of each religious sect, or political party among us.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)