The difference between Clique and Coterie
When used as nouns, clique means a small, exclusive group of individuals, whereas coterie means a circle of people who associate with one another.
Clique is also verb with the meaning: to associate together in a clannish way.
check bellow for the other definitions of Clique and Coterie
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Clique as a noun:
A small, exclusive group of individuals; a cabal.
Examples:
"This school used to be really friendly, but now everyone keeps to their own cliques."
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Clique as a noun (graph theory):
A subgraph isomorphic to a complete graph.
Examples:
"The problem of finding the largest clique in an arbitrary graph is NP-complete."
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Clique as a noun (Internet):
A group of related web sites that link to each other, like a webring but with exclusive membership determined by the clique owner.
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Clique as a verb (intransitive):
To associate together in a clannish way; to act with others secretly to gain a desired end; to plot.
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Coterie as a noun:
A circle of people who associate with one another.
Examples:
"The new junior employee joined our merry after-hours coterie."
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Coterie as a noun:
An exclusive group of people, who associate closely for a common purpose; a clique.
Examples:
"A tightly-knit coterie of executive powerbrokers made all the real decisions in the company."
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Coterie as a noun:
A communal burrow of prairie dogs.
Examples:
"The coterie was located in the middle of our wheat field."