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Cabal has been associated with a group of five ministers in the government of England's King Charles II. The initial letters of the names or titles of those men (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale) spelled cabal, and they have been collectively dubbed as the "Cabal Cabinet" or "Cabal Ministry." But these five names are not the source of the word cabal, which was in use decades before Charles II ascended the throne. The term traces back to cabbala, the Medieval Latin name for the Kabbalah, a traditional system of esoteric Jewish mysticism. Latin borrowed Cabbala from the Hebrew qabbālāh, meaning "received or traditional lore."
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Examples of cabal in a Sentence
Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 3 Feb. 2025
Other movies out on Video-On-Demand include: The Order with Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult about an FBI agent tracking down bank robbers who are hitting banks to fund a white supremacist terrorist cabal.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2025
As any student of the Kings will know, the point is not to conjure up some Pizzagate-style conspiracy about a cabal of liberal Hollywood predators.
—Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2025
Reacher will go up against a cabal of criminals including Paulie (Olivier Richters) pictured in the top image of this post.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 8 Jan. 2025
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“Cabal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabal. Accessed 8 Feb. 2025.
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