Cult typically refers to a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding population considers to be outside the mainstream, with a notably positive or negative popular perception. The word "cult", which has at least eight meanings, has been a source of confusion.^[1]

In common or popular usage, "cult" has a positive connotation for groups of art, music, writing, fiction,^[2] and fashion devotees (see Cult following), but a negative connotation for new religious, extreme political, questionable therapeutic, and pyramidal business groups.^[3] For this reason, most, if not all, non-fan groups that are called cults reject this label.

A group's cult status begins as rumors spread of its novel belief system, its great devotions, its idiosyncratic practices, its perceived harmful or beneficial effects on members or its perceived opposition to the interests of mainstream cultures and governments. Persistent rumors may follow relatively small and recently founded religious or non-religious groups when they are perceived to engage in excessive member control or exploitation.

New religions are often considered "cults" before they are considered religions^[4] by social scientists, by Christian Evangelical/Fundamentalist theologians, and also by the secular public – yet these three groups do not usually have the same understanding of the term "cult". People understand the term "cult" through the most popular usage in their cultures and subcultures, which can result in homonymic conflict, a communicative conflict with people who hold a different definition of the same term. This often results in confusion, misunderstanding, and resentment between members of "cult" groups and non-members.

Laypersons participate in cultic studies to a degree not found in other academic disciplines, making it difficult to demarcate the boundaries of science from theology, politics, news reporting, fashion, and family cultural values.

From about 1920 onward,^[1] the popular negative connotation progressively interfered with scientific study using the neutral historical meaning of "cult" in the sociology of religion.^[5] A 20th century attempt by sociologists to replace "cult" with the term New Religious Movement (NRM), was rejected by the public ^[6] and not entirely accepted by the social-scientific community. ^[7]

Despite the existence of popular cult checklists, anthropologists and sociologists have argued that no one has been able to unambiguously define “cult”, in a way that identifies only non-fan groups who will become illegally abusive or destructive. However, without attempting to predict crimes or torts by groups, scientific criteria of characteristics attributed to cults do exist. A little-known example is Alexander and Rollins' 1984 study, which concluded that the socially well-received group Alcoholics Anonymous is a cult by using the model of Lifton's thought reform techniques^[8] and applying those to AA's group indoctrination methodology.^[9]

During the 20th century, groups referred to as cults by governments and media became globally controversial. The televised rise and fall of less than 20 destructive cults known for mass suicide and murder tarred hundreds of NRM groups having less serious government and civil legal entanglements, against a background of thousands of unremarkable NRM groups known only to their neighbors.

Following the Solar Temple destructive cult incidents on two continents, France authorized the 1995 Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France. This commission set a mostly non-controversial standard for human rights objections to exploitative group practices, and mandated a controversial remedy for cultic abuse, known in English as cult watching, which was quietly adopted by other countries. The United States does not have a classification for cults in its legal system.^[10] The U.S. responded with human rights challenges to French cult control policies, and France charged the U.S. with interfering in French internal affairs. In recent years, France's troublesome public cult watching lists appear to have been retired in favor of confidential police intelligence gathering.