Other forms: sects
A sect is a group holding beliefs at odds with the main body. A breakaway sect, a religious sect, members of the sect.
The word is nearly always used from outside and rarely by the group itself, and it carries a suggestion of narrowness. Sociologists use it more neutrally for a group that has broken from an established church. Sectarian means dividing along those lines.
1nounsectA group holding beliefs at odds with the main body.
“He left his family to join a small religious sect in the mountains.”
sect is a group.
Latin secta meant a following or a school of thought, from sequi, to follow. It was later associated with secare, to cut.
Proto-Indo-European
*sekʷ-
Latin
secta — a sect in philosophy or religion, a school, party, faction, class, guild, band, particularly a heretical doctrine or sect, etc.
Old French
secte — a sect in philosophy or religion
Middle English
secte
English, today
sect
Built from
From Middle English secte, from Old French secte (“a sect in philosophy or religion”), from Latin secta (“a sect in philosophy or religion, a school, party, faction, class, guild, band, particularly a heretical doctrine or sect, etc.”), possibly, from Latin sequi (“to follow”). Alternatively linked to sectus (“cut off, divided”), past participle of secō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA