Category:Sect

Sect, n. Etym: [l. secare, sectum, to cut.]

Defn: a cutting; a scion. [obs.] Shak.

Sect Sect, n. Etym: [f. secte, l. sects, fr. sequi to follew; often Confused with l. secare, sectum, to cut. See sue to follow, and cf. Sept, suit, n.]

Defn: those following a particular leader or authority, or attached to a certain opinion; a company or set having a common belief or allegiance distinct from others; in religion, the believers in a particular creed, or upholders of a particular practice; especially, in modern times, a party dissenting from an established church; a denomination; in philosophy, the disciples of a particular master; a school; in society and the state, an order, rank, class, or party. He beareth the sign of poverty, and in that sect our Savior saved all mankind. Piers plowman. As of the sect of which that he was born, he kept his lay, to which that he was sworn. Chaucer. The cursed sect of that detestable and false prophet Mohammed. Fabyan. As concerning this sect [Christians], we know that everywhere it is spoken against. Acts 28:22.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Sect - (Gr. hairesis, usually rendered "heresy", Acts 24:14; 1 Chronicles 11:19; Galatians 5:20, etc.), meaning properly "a choice," then "a chosen manner of life," and then "a religious party," as the "sect" of the Sadducees (Acts 5:17), of the Pharisees (Acts 15:5), the Nazarenes, i.e., Christians (Acts 24:5). It afterwards came to be used in a bad sense, of those holding pernicious error, divergent forms of belief (2 Peter 2:1; Galatians 5:20).