[sekt] 
| 1. | a body of persons adhering to a particular religious faith; a religious denomination. |
| 2. | a group regarded as heretical or as deviating from a generally accepted religious tradition. |
| 3. | (in the sociology of religion) a Christian denomination characterized by insistence on strict qualifications for membership, as distinguished from the more inclusive groups called churches. |
| 4. | any group, party, or faction united by a specific doctrine or under a doctrinal leader. |
| sect (sěkt) n.
[Middle English secte, from Old French, from Latin secta, course, school of thought, from feminine past participle of sequī, to follow; see sekw-1 in Indo-European roots.] |
Sect
(Gr. hairesis, usually rendered "heresy", Acts 24:14; 1 Chr. 11:19; Gal. 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 (15:5), the Nazarenes, i.e., Christians (24:5). It afterwards came to be used in a bad sense, of those holding pernicious error, divergent forms of belief (2 Pet. 2:1; Gal. 5:20).