clique
/ˈklɪk/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.15 in modern English
Meaning
noun
A small, exclusive group of individuals, usually having some common characteristic such as lifestyle or social status, or common purpose; specifically one formed for disreputable purposes, or which purports to be an authority on a particular matter; a cabal.
noun
A subgraph isomorphic to a complete graph.
noun
A group of related websites that link to each other, like a webring but with exclusive membership determined by the clique owner.
noun
An informal faction in the Republic of China (1912–1949) led by one or more warlords exercising regional control through local armed forces (particularly during the Warlord Era); a regional junta.
name
Alternative letter-case form of Clique (ellipsis of Skeleton Clique (“the fan base of the American band Twenty One Pilots”)).
name
Ellipsis of the Skeleton Clique (“the fan base of the American band Twenty One Pilots”).
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: circle, faction, gang"
- "This school used to be really friendly, but now everyone keeps to their own cliques."
- "It is sufficient to state, that the Royal Academy […] has excluded and persecuted many of the greatest we possess, and that at the moment, sixty-five years after its establishment, our greatest living artists, with scarcely any exceptions, have not been educated at an academy, intended of course to educate genius, even more than to support it afterwards! With the assumption of a public body, it has combined the exclusiveness of a private clique."
- "Choose well your set; our feeble nature seeks / The aid of clubs, the countenance of cliques; […]"
- "There had been talk of some disagreement about a picture, but in Sir Maxwell's experience, artists frequently disagreed about pictures, with no more consequences than a little cold-shouldering or the formation of a clique."
- "The problem of finding the largest clique in an arbitrary graph is NP-complete."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: clique
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /klik/
- British English: /kliːk/