religion

religion, denomination, sect, cult, communion, faith, creed, persuasion, church can all denote a system of religious belief and worship or the body of persons who accept such a system.

Religion, the usual uncolored term, may apply to a system (as Christianity or Buddhism) which represents the beliefs and worship of all those who accept a given revelation or to one (as Anglicanism) which represents the beliefs and practiced worship of a specific body of those who accept the same revelation

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the religion of the Arabs

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the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees

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Denomination basically applies to a body of people holding common and distinctive religious beliefs and called by a particular name so as to distinguish them from a more inclusive body

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Methodists form one denomination of Protestants

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the leading Christian denominations

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Sect is applied to a group cut off from a larger body or, more specifically, from an established or a parent church through discontent with some matter of doctrine or observance; thus, one speaks of the Christian religion as comprising all who accept the New Testament as divine revelation, but of the various sects into which the seven- teenth-century and eighteenth-century Protestant denominations were divided.

Cult though widely varied in use is typically applied to a sometimes nontheistic system of beliefs and ritual or to its adherents. It is likely to suggest a great or excessive devotion and a fervent observance by a usually small group of what appear bizarre or spurious or strangely foreign and unseemly rites to persons who follow other beliefs

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ever since the close of the Punic War foreigners had been thronging to Rome, bringing with them their foreign cults— Buchan

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the romantic error has been ... in short, to turn the nature cult into a religion— Babbitt

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Communion stresses not difference from others but union in essentials (as of religious belief and discipline); the term can apply not only to a large body

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the Roman Catholic communion

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but to one comprising several smaller bodies or organizations (as national churches) which exhibit such union

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the Anglican communion includes all who are united with the Church of England in matters of faith and order

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or to small sects and cults isolated by their special beliefs or practices.

Faith and creed apply to a system of belief and worship that is clearly formulated and definitely accepted

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men of all faiths were present

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creeds are often a cause of division

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Persuasion may suggest the conviction produced by evangelism and exhortation; it is frequently equivalent to faith or denomination. Church usually has implications that closely relate it to denomination. Distinctively it suggests a clearly defined character, both as a system of beliefs or as a body of persons, and often carries a stronger connotation of organization than denomination carries; it may imply specifically Christian as contrasted with non-Christian worship

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to what church does he belong?

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some churches that forbade dancing now countenance it

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