cult

noun

religious practice embodied in ritual and ceremony; literally the "care" (Latin cultus) owed to deities and to temples, shrines, or churches
social group with socially deviant or novel religious, philosophical or spiritual beliefs and practices

Pronunciation: /kʌlt/ / [kʰʌlt] / /ˈkɒlt/

Etymology: Derived from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).

Of or relating to a cult.
Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
“a cult horror movie”
“To a certain extent, the cult movie and the classic are opposites, appealing to vastly different audiences. Whereas a film can become an instant cult, and then forgotten, a film cannot become an “instant classic”, which is only critical shorthand for “excellent”.”
Alternative form of kvlt.

Etymology: Derived from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).

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”
“the cult of Mary”
A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.
“the heavy metal cult”
“the cult of basketball”
A 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.”
“Werner Erhard's highly successful est cult is partly derived from Scientology. Erhard had some experience with Scientology in 1969. Then he worked for a while in Mind Dynamics, itself an offshoot of Jose Silva's Mind Control.”