coterie

[ koh-tuh-ree ]

noun

1. a group of people who associate closely.
2. an exclusive group; clique.
3. a group of prairie dogs occupying a communal burrow.

coterie

/ ˈkəʊtərɪ /

noun

1. a small exclusive group of friends or people with common interests; clique

Word History and Origins

Origin of coterie¹

First recorded in 1730–40; from French, Middle French: “an association of tenant farmers,” from Medieval Latin coter(ius) cotter ² + -ie -y ³

Word History and Origins

Origin of coterie¹

C18: from French, from Old French: association of tenants, from cotier (unattested) cottager, from Medieval Latin cotārius cotter ²; see cot ²

Synonym Study

See circle.

Example Sentences

She often attracted a coterie of younger activists as she lectured around the country and conducted workshops on understanding racism.

From Washington Post

In a few short years in the 1940s and into the 1950s, this coterie framed the rules and institutions that define American national security and the global international system to this day.

From Time

Fascists rely on a tight coterie of corrupt loyalists to take over the government and impose control.

From Time

A thundering coterie of chirping prairie dogs darted chaotically around the grasslands.

From Outside Online

DiCarlo and Yamins, who now runs his own lab at Stanford University, are part of a coterie of neuroscientists using deep neural networks to make sense of the brain’s architecture.

From Quanta Magazine

Yet as Emily Bazelon revealed in Slate, a coterie of right-wing organizations has indeed lined up to oppose contraception itself.

From The Daily Beast

There has long been a small coterie clamoring to pray there.

From The Daily Beast

Barbra Streisand and Denzel Washington, along with a coterie of A-listers, have sent their toddlers there.

From The Daily Beast

Quick-witted, sharp-tongued, and flirtatious, Anne drew a coterie of men to her, and each would lose his head for her.

From The Daily Beast

Only Hagel's supposed anti-Semitism is a slander pushed almost exclusively by a small coterie of neoconservatives.

From The Daily Beast

At that time Baudelaire's work was only known to a distinguished literary coterie.

From Project Gutenberg

Novall Junior and his coterie appear here as in their former presentation in II, ii.

From Project Gutenberg

To the end, the coterie would act according to the light of their own eyes.

From Project Gutenberg

This abuse was attacked by an enterprising reformer, and of course defended by the coterie.

From Project Gutenberg

They formed a coterie at Cambridge, and spent most of their holidays at Newstead.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• cadre