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Cult vs Tribe - What's the difference?

cult | tribe |

As nouns the difference between cult and tribe

is that cult is a group of people with a religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect, often existing on the margins of society or exploitative towards its members while tribe is a socially, ethnically, and politically cohesive group of people.

As an adjective cult

is of, or relating to a cult.

As a verb tribe is

to distribute into tribes or classes; to categorize.

cult

English

(wikipedia cult)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A group of people with a religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect, often existing on the margins of society or exploitative towards its members.
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  • Devotion to a saint.
  • (lb) A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.
  • Derived terms

    * cargo cult * cultic * cultist

    See also

    * sect

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of, or relating to a cult.
  • Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
  • a cult horror movie

    Usage notes

    The term has a positive connotation for groups of art, music, writing, fiction, and fashion devotees, but a negative connotation for new religious, extreme political, questionable therapeutic, and pyramidal business groups.

    Anagrams

    * (l) ----

    tribe

    English

    (wikipedia tribe)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A socially, ethnically, and politically cohesive group of people.
  • (anthropology) A society larger than a band but smaller than a state.
  • The collective noun for various animals.
  • (taxonomy) A hierarchal rank between family and genus.
  • (stock breeding) A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line.
  • the Duchess tribe of shorthorns

    Derived terms

    * tribal * tribelet

    See also

    * ethnic *

    Verb

    (trib)
  • To distribute into tribes or classes; to categorize.
  • * Archbishop Nicolson
  • Our fowl, fish, and quadruped are well tribed .