Real Dictionary

Waldenses in American English
a sect of dissenters from the Roman Catholic Church which arose about 1170 in S France: excommunicated in 1184, they survive esp. in northwestern Italy
noun: a Christian sect that arose after 1170 in southern France, under the leadership of Pierre Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, and joined the Reformation movement in the 16th century

Waldenses in British English
plural noun: the members of a small sect founded as a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church by Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons in the late 12th century, which in the 16th century joined the Reformation movement