Modern academics tend to avoid the term outside of intentional use for click-bait, because the line between a cult and a religion is often how widely accepted and thus normalized it is. The term is most often used to out-group smaller religions that aren't any more extreme than more established religions, so the word says more about the person using the word (their intent to disparage the target) than the religion itself.

In this context academics use the term "NRM" instead, which stands for "New Religious Movement", because young religions are of course not widely accepted and thus often labeled as cults.

Historically "cult" used to be pretty synonymous with religion in general, implying a subgroup with a narrower specific angle or emphasis than the wider parent-religion. Now it more implies any kind of extreme zealotry that espouses practices that either cause harm to adherents or outsiders, or beliefs that just strike people as strange and foreign.