School vs. Cult — What's the Difference?

A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students (or "pupils") under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsory.

In modern English, a cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial, having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia, and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.

An institution for the instruction of children or people under college age.

A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object

An institution for instruction in a skill or business

A person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or section of society

A college or university.

A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.

An institution within or associated with a college or university that gives instruction in a specialized field and recommends candidates for degrees.

The followers of such a religion or sect.

A division of an educational institution constituting several grades or classes

A system or community of religious worship and ritual.

The student body of an educational institution.

The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

The building or group of buildings housing an educational institution.

A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.

The process of being educated formally, especially education constituting a planned series of courses over a number of years

Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.

A session of instruction

The object of such devotion.

A group of people, especially philosophers, artists, or writers, whose thought, work, or style demonstrates a common origin or influence or unifying belief

An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

A group of people distinguished by similar manners, customs, or opinions

A group, sect or movement following an unorthodox religious or philosophical system of beliefs, especially one in which members remove and exclude themselves from greater society, including family members not part of the cult, and show extreme devotion to a charismatic leader.

Close-order drill instructions or exercises for military units or personnel.

The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint.

(Australian) A group of people gathered together for gambling.

(informal) A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.

A large group of aquatic animals, especially fish, swimming together; a shoal.

Of or relating to a cult.

To educate in or as if in a school.

Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.

To train or discipline

Alternative form of kvlt.

(Slang) To defeat or put down decisively, especially in a humiliating manner

Attentive care; homage; worship.

To swim in or form into a school.

A system of religious belief and worship.

Of or relating to school or education in schools

A system of intense religious veneration of a particular person, idea, or object, especially one considered spurious or irrational by traditional religious bodies; as, the Moonie cult.

(North America) An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.

The group of individuals who adhere to a cult (senses 2 or 3).

(British) An educational institution providing primary and secondary education, prior to tertiary education (college or university).

A strong devotion or interest in a particular person, idea or thing without religious associations, or the people holding such an interest; as, the cult of James Dean; the cult of personality in totalitarian societies.

(UK) At Eton College, a period or session of teaching.

Adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices

Within a larger educational institution, an organizational unit, such as a department or institute, which is dedicated to a specific subject area.

An interest followed with exaggerated zeal;

An art movement, a community of artists.

A system of religious beliefs and rituals;

The followers of a particular doctrine; a particular way of thinking or particular doctrine; a school of thought.

The time during which classes are attended or in session in an educational institution.

The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honours are held.

The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age.

An establishment offering specialized instruction, as for driving, cooking, typing, coding, etc.

(collective) A group of fish or a group of marine mammals such as porpoises, dolphins, or whales.

A multitude.

(transitive) To educate, teach, or train (often, but not necessarily, in a school).

(transitive) To defeat emphatically, to teach an opponent a harsh lesson.

(transitive) To control, or compose, one’s expression.

To form into, or travel in, a school.

A shoal; a multitude; as, a school of fish.

A place for learned intercourse and instruction; an institution for learning; an educational establishment; a place for acquiring knowledge and mental training; as, the school of the prophets.

A place of primary instruction; an establishment for the instruction of children; as, a primary school; a common school; a grammar school.

A session of an institution of instruction.

One of the seminaries for teaching logic, metaphysics, and theology, which were formed in the Middle Ages, and which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of reasoning.

The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honors are held.

An assemblage of scholars; those who attend upon instruction in a school of any kind; a body of pupils.

The disciples or followers of a teacher; those who hold a common doctrine, or accept the same teachings; a sect or denomination in philosophy, theology, science, medicine, politics, etc.

The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age; as, he was a gentleman of the old school.

Figuratively, any means of knowledge or discipline; as, the school of experience.

To train in an institution of learning; to educate at a school; to teach.

To tutor; to chide and admonish; to reprove; to subject to systematic discipline; to train.

An educational institution;

A building where young people receive education;

The process of being formally educated at a school;

An educational institution's faculty and students;

The period of instruction in a school; the time period when schools is in session;

A body of creative artists or writers or thinkers linked by a similar style or by similar teachers;

A large group of fish;

Educate in or as if in a school;

Train to be discriminative in taste or judgment;

Swim in or form a large group of fish;