Image by Thibault Trillet
发音：[kʌlt]
例句：
- The word cult can have different meanings depending on the context, but in general, it refers to a group of people who have extreme and often unusual beliefs, practices, or behavior, and are often led by a single charismatic leader.
- When I talked about some career options, she said that she only wanted to help fight the Mormon cults that had taken thousands of people in Utah.
- After I began working as a writer in New York City, I gathered a lot of interesting material from around Harlem and suggested an article about the cult to the Reader’s Digest.
- Apps like TikTok and YouTube are practically made to use raw visual materials to promote a personality cult, bullying campaign, or branding opportunity.
- After that major reform nearly twenty years ago, numerous cults surrounding the memory of rock-and-roll have emerged, causing the Pixies’ initial seven-year success from 1986 to 1993 to appear as a peculiar omen.
- It has been three years since Joe Ricketts apologized for making Islamophobic comments in emails that were published by Splinter News, where he referred to Islam as a cult instead of a religion.
- The movie “Office Space” from 1999 portrays American corporate culture as a cult-like environment where people pretend to be nice to their coworkers, but they don’t really mean it, and no one wants to admit their mistakes.
解释：
- Cult这个单词做名词使用，其表示“a group of people who have extreme and often unusual beliefs, practices, or behavior”，与“a system of religious beliefs and rituals”这两者含义，即“（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体/崇拜者”以及“狂热/时尚/崇拜”，与faith/religion/religious belief这些单词构成近义词。
- 具体使用场景如下：
- Many ancient myths describe catastrophic floods, and some religious groups continue to attract followers with predictions of death by comet or solar flare, forming cults around these beliefs.（许多古代神话描述了灾难性的洪水，一些宗教团体继续通过预测彗星或太阳耀斑的死亡来吸引追随者，围绕这些信仰形成异教徒。）
–Culture - Google Hangouts Chat remains a popular tool among a niche group of users, or cult followers, due to its unlimited messaging capabilities, integration with other Google services, and easy-to-follow discussion threads.（谷歌 Hangouts Chat 由于其无限的消息传递功能、与其他 Google 服务的集成以及易于遵循的讨论线程，在利基用户群体或狂热追随者中仍然是一种流行的工具。）
–Technology - Matsuda, in his interview with The Verge, mentions several factors that have contributed to the rise of productivity cults, including the increasing influence of algorithms, automation of work, and the pressure to constantly improve one’s efficiency.（松田在接受The Verge采访时提到了导致生产力崇拜兴起的几个因素，包括算法的影响力越来越大，工作自动化以及不断提高效率的压力。）
–Technology - Football lost its popularity, relegating it to a cult sport until 2009 when it was announced that it would be returning to the Olympic Games.（足球失去了它的受欢迎程度，将其降级为一项狂热运动直到2009年，当年宣布它将重返奥运会。）
–Sports - Most church references to mythology have stronger connections to its symbolic meanings from its religious roots than to the later narrative histories that some religious groups have turned into cults.（大多数教会对神话的引用与其宗教根源的象征意义有更强的联系，而不是后来一些宗教团体变成狂热崇拜的叙事历史。）
–Culture - This writer was known for his distinctive humor, as a former member of the original “Saturday Night Live” cast and for creating the cult-favorite sitcom “Square Pegs.”（这位作家以其独特的幽默而闻名，作为原始“周六夜现场”演员的前成员，并创作了备受追捧的情景喜剧“方形钉子”。）
–Arts
