(a) A class of people or things, sort, kind; (b) a species, race; a ieu of ~, ?of Jewish extraction or adherence; (c) a bodily form, likeness; in oure ~, in our likeness, in human flesh; (d) those of a certain way of thinking or acting, esp. as parties in a controversy or lawsuit; ?also with punning reference to 1.(e) [quot.: c1395]; (e) sex, gender.

(a) An organized system of religious belief and practice, esp. a non-Christian faith; also, Christianity itself, viewed from a pagan perspective; also, the body of adherents of such a religion; ~ saturnine, the Jewish faith (believed to have been heralded by the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn); bringen in ~, to introduce a religion; (b) a group within an organized religious body which adheres to a special set of doctrines and practices, a branch of a religious faith; (c) a religious order within the Christian church; the body of members of such an order; a body of clerics, as clerks, canons, etc.; also, one of the broader categories of believers within the Christian church, as the clergy, laity, etc. [quot.: a1500 Consideryng]; (d) a group within an organized religious body which adheres to doctrines or practices generally regarded by the larger body as unorthodox or heretical; also, the system of beliefs of such a group, a heresy; bringen in (up) sectes, leden in sectes, to introduce heresies.

(a) A body of followers, a train, retinue; a faction, party; (b) a system of philosophy; also, the body of adherents of a particular philosophical school; bringen up ~, to found a school of philosophy; (c) med. a particular system of medical theory and practice; the body of adherents of such a system; the bok of sectes, a treatise by Galen on theoretical systems of medicine, commonly entitled in L De Sectis or Liber Sectarum; commentour of the sectes, Johannes Alexandrinus, the author of an introduction to and commentary on Galen's De Sectis.