clerisy

American  

[kler-uh-see] / ˈklɛr ə si /

noun

1. learned persons as a class; literati; intelligentsia.

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Etymology

Origin of clerisy

1818; < German Klerisei clergy < Medieval Latin clēricia, equivalent to clēric ( us ) cleric + -ia -ia; introduced by S.T. Coleridge

Example Sentences

Diplomats joined international lawyers and experts from nonprofit foundations and the academy to form a secular clerisy that set rules for governments to impose.

From The Wall Street Journal

Obscurantism enveloped in opacity is the academics’ way of assigning themselves status as members of a closed clerisy indulging in linguistic fads.

From Washington Post

Only those the board licenses are admitted to the clerisy uniquely entitled to publicly discuss engineering.

From Washington Post

Indeed, the point of such ludicrous prose is to signal membership in a closed clerisy that possesses a private language.

From Washington Post

You have never met a more cocksure lot than the monetary-policy clerisy.

From The Wall Street Journal