How to Use cult of personality in a Sentence

cult of personality

noun phrase
  • There’s a cult of personality around Liz that doesn’t quite make sense to me yet.
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2024
  • At its core, the story of Vice is one of money, greed and the cult of personality.
    — Lachlan Cartwright, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Does somebody else manage to come in and replace him and be the new focal point of the cult of personality?
    — Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 22 Sep. 2025
  • The cult of personality is not attached to any rational thought.
    — Shikha Dalmia, Washington Post, 13 Oct. 2025
  • The party’s strength has less to do with a cult of personality around its leader than the mainstream appeal of its platform.
    — Cole Stangler, Time, 1 Apr. 2025
  • Burnishing his cult of personality is, for all but the most besotted or trollish, not on that list.
    — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 8 Feb. 2026
  • Not many years ago, a ruthless man with an uneasy mind took power in his country and created a cult of personality.
    — David Remnick, New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2026
  • However, maintaining the same roster didn’t detract from the cult of personality around the new boss.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 28 Mar. 2025
  • No one lords over a cult of personality right now, actively or passively, quite like Joni Mitchell.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 14 June 2023
  • Bannon’s fantasy functions as a rhetorical weapon—a way of probing how far the cult of personality can go before the rule of law pushes back.
    — Dan Perry, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Oct. 2025
  • For the most part, a little fame, a knack for attention, and some predisposition toward building a cult of personality are enough to rise to the top.
    — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 18 June 2024
  • But now with Hasina expelled, that cult of personality is shorn of its power and will not wield the same influence over Bangladeshi politics.
    — Ali Riaz, Foreign Affairs, 6 Aug. 2024
  • For many voters, however, Modi’s cult of personality had crossed the line into delusional hubris.
    — Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2024
  • Trump’s cult of personality has been replaced with a new political philosophy branded like his buildings and resorts.
    — Mark Niquette, Bloomberg.com, 8 June 2022
  • The Kremlin is carrying out public events featuring the Russian leader that seem designed to build a cult of personality around him.
    — Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2023
  • Years of hagiographic media coverage and his immense social-media reach birthed legions of fanboys and nurtured a cult of personality.
    — Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 28 July 2025
  • The rapturous arrival struck a chord with President Marcos, who aspired to build his own cult of personality in the Philippines.
    — Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Despite—or perhaps because of—the massive toll of human suffering, the campaign played a crucial role in establishing Mao’s cult of personality.
    — Maya Wang, Foreign Affairs, 24 Nov. 2021
  • America is not supposed to be about the cult of personality; we’re supposed to be about a group of people who are making laws that would make the American people’s lives easier and affordable.
    — Brady Gerber, Vulture, 19 Jan. 2024
  • Villeneuve also pulled it off without losing sight of Herbert’s deeper concerns, like how the hero’s journey often ends in a dictatorial cult of personality.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Dec. 2024
  • Haines’s illustrations didn’t speak to the cult of personality, or consumerism so much as capture a mood and document how chicness is distilled through posture, gesture, and the thoughtful way colors and shapes are combined.
    — Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 20 Sep. 2023
  • It’s crushed under a cult of personality so punitive that citizens can be imprisoned if inspectors find any dust on the household portrait of supreme leader Kim Jong Un.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 1 Nov. 2023
  • The Kremlin’s tight media control, its wall-to-wall pro-war propaganda and its cult of personality around Putin has eliminated any electoral uncertainties.
    — Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 14 Nov. 2023
  • Mao also expanded the militia system to suppress and intimidate people who opposed his radical policies, while developing a cult of personality within and outside the party.
    — Laura He, CNN, 20 Feb. 2024
  • But Brat came at a moment when mainstream pop music is finally embracing more of the crunchy alt-pop sounds she’s been swimming in for the last decade, while Charli’s own cult of personality has grown to exponential proportions.
    — Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 18 June 2024
  • There’s no room, however, to elevate the presidency created by the revolution of 1776 into a gaudy cult of personality.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 31 May 2026
  • Such is the cult of personality surrounding players such as Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, rational debate is impossible.
    — Graham Scott, New York Times, 19 June 2026
  • Now, André’s flirtations with jazz music are taking myself and others beyond his cult of personality and into a deeper appreciation for instrumentation.
    — Ken Makin, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Apr. 2024
  • Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington and Andrew Scott play members of the spiteful holy man’s cult of personality.
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 25 Nov. 2025
  • While different definitions abound, many experts agree that fascism is an extreme combination of nationalism and militarism, often accompanied by a cult of personality surrounding a leader.
    — Kathryn Palmer, USA Today, 23 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cult of personality.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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