inner circle

noun

1. a small, intimate, and often influential group of people.

Word History and Origins

Origin of inner circle¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

Also, at least one reader tried to cheat a little by clipping the bottom-left corner of the inner circle, which was not allowed.

From FiveThirtyEight

To hug the inner circle, you had to take shorter steps each turn to keep your turning radius low.

From FiveThirtyEight

I have at least one person in my inner circle who hasn’t been vaccinated and probably never will be, and I’m still grappling with what that will mean for our relationship.

From FiveThirtyEight

It became a subtle trend—a rotating cast of people exiting her inner circle after a brief period, including hair stylists and dancers.

From The Daily Beast

He was the only one not directly in my inner circle that I told.

From Washington Post

The RSD Facebook page, and all the local RSD groups, known as “inner circle,” have been switched to private.

From The Daily Beast

But a cluster of felonies landed Webb Hubbell in jail, and frozen out of the inner circle.

From The Daily Beast

The entire inner circle of the Maidan encampment was surrounded by rings of fire created by the protestors to keep the police out.

From The Daily Beast

As a result, their inner circle became virtually impenetrable.

From The Daily Beast

Only those with really long arms can pull themselves up to the inner circle.

From The Daily Beast

It has been immensely popular, and thus does not illustrate merely the taste of an inner circle of its author's admirers.

From Project Gutenberg

The cynosure of the inner circle is personal piety, combined with a “penny a week and a shilling a quarter.”

From Project Gutenberg

What was she to him, either near or afar off, alone or in the inner circle of his family?

From Project Gutenberg

Hooker had swung the army up to Fairfax and Centreville, moving on an inner circle, with Washington for a pivot.

From Project Gutenberg

The inner circle of Stonehenge consisted of five upstanding trilithons of which the stones came—by popular repute—from Ireland.

From Project Gutenberg