1. [n]  a subdivision of a larger religious group
2. [n]  a dissenting clique

1. \Sect\, n. [L. secare, sectum, to cut.]
   A cutting; a scion. [Obs.] --Shak.
   
   

2. \Sect\, n. [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.]
   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 xxviii.
                                                  22.
   
   

(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).