coterie
Americannoun
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a group of people who associate closely.
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an exclusive group; clique.
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a group of prairie dogs occupying a communal burrow.
noun
Related Words
See circle.
Etymology
Origin of coterie
First recorded in 1730–40; from French, Middle French: “an association of tenant farmers,” from Medieval Latin coter(ius) cotter 2 + -ie -y 3
Explanation
Have you noticed how so many of the best TV shows concentrate on a group of friends who seem to mesh together perfectly, to the exclusion of all others? This, then, is a coterie, an exclusive group with common interests. The modern spelling and meaning of coterie developed in the 18th century from a French word rooted in the feudal system. When the farmers working the land of a feudal lord established an organization, they were called cotiers, or "tenants of a cote" (think "cottage"), and that idea of a select group led to the word coterie. There's just something so French about the idea of exclusivity, isn't there?
Vocabulary lists containing coterie
In Cold Blood
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The Fault in Our Stars
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Anna Karenina
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
MetaX Integrated Circuits, the Chinese AI chipmaker and part of a coterie of fast-growing tech stocks known as the “Little Dragons,” enjoyed a wildly successful launch on the Shanghai exchange Wednesday.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 17, 2025
This summer, SpaceX hit $400 billion in a private secondary share offering where many of Musk’s loyal coterie of friends and early investors participated.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 13, 2025
During Newby’s tenure as chief justice, a cartoon has hung in the Supreme Court depicting him as Superman, surrounded by a coterie of conservative appellate justices caricatured as other members of DC Comics’ Justice League.
From Salon • Oct. 31, 2025
In the more rarefied reaches of this coterie world, the mainstream embrace of “Topdog/Underdog” implied selling out.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2025
Wherever Willoughby went, there followed axiomatically a coterie of passive, mostly negative characters known as the Courthouse Crowd, specimens Willoughby had put into the various county and municipal offices to do as they were told.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
