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clique

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Clique and cliqué

English

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WOTD – 17 August 2026

Etymology

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The noun is borrowed from French clique (“exclusive group of individuals; (archaic or obsolete) group of people hired to applaud or boo, claque”), from cliquer (“to clap; to clack, to click”), ultimately of imitative origin.[1]

The proper noun and verb[2] are derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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clique (plural cliques)

  2. 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.
    Synonyms: camp, coterie, inner circle
    Near-synonyms: circle, faction, gang
    Hypernym: ingroup
    This school used to be really friendly, but now everyone keeps to their own cliques.
    • 1833, Edward Lytton Bulwer [i.e., Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The State of the Arts”, in England and the English […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […] (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, 4th book (View of the Intellectual Spirit of the Time), page 205:
      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.
    • 1846 October 14 (date delivered), Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], Urania: A Rhymed Lesson. […], Boston, Mass.: William D[avis] Ticknor & Company, published 1846, →OCLC, page 18:
      Choose well your set; our feeble nature seeks / The aid of clubs, the countenance of cliques; […]
    • 1931, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “Farren”, in The Five Red Herrings, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 61:
      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.
  3. (by extension)
    1. (graph theory) A subgraph isomorphic to a complete graph.
      Antonym: independent set
      The problem of finding the largest clique in an arbitrary graph is NP-complete.
    2. (Internet) A group of related websites that link to each other, like a webring but with exclusive membership determined by the clique owner.
      • 1999 January 3, Jackie, “[S]omeone help me out?”, in alt.fan.leo-dicaprio‎[1] (Usenet):
        Does anyone know what an internet clique is/does? I came across a few and am thoroughly confused.
      • 2000 August 16, - deanna -, “ot: hiya”, in alt.fan.backstreet.boys‎[2] (Usenet):
        [E]ven though we're not "regulars" anymore…*sniffle*…we still can't forget the NG [newsgroup]…i always tell new fans about it…(people who join my clique, etc…)…and besides…i owe the NG a LOT…itz where i met my best friend…
      • 2001 May 28, spee2k, “[F]uture [N]o [D]oubt website…”, in alt.music.no-doubt‎[3] (Usenet):
        [Y]ou always have to click some big section and you get a whole new set of options in a different frame, thats[sic] usually on the other side of the screen. when you're there, you can choose from (in a section site stuff or something like that) link me, link you, links, top 10 links, free for all links, cliques, and webrings.
    3. (China, historical) 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.
      • 1954, Tsjenn Po-ta [i.e., Chen Boda], chapter 2, in [anonymous], transl., Notes on Ten Years of Civil War (1927–1936), Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, →OCLC, page 42:
        In the South, too, due either to direct or indirect machinations by imperialism, there mushroomed many cliques and factions which fought against one another; in the provinces, small cliques and factions within big ones were also struggling against one another.
      • 1976, Donald A. Jordan, “Taking the Expedition into North China”, in The Northern Expedition: China’s National Revolution of 1926–1928, Honolulu, Hi.: The University Press of Hawaii, →ISBN, part 2 (The Military Conquest of Warlord China), page 137:
        Within the military, the Kwangsi clique of Li Tsung-jen and Pai Ch'ung-hsi were openly opposed to Chiang [Kai-shek]'s policies; while Ho Ying-ch'in and others were ambivalent.
      • 2017, Chi Man Kwong, “The Fengtian Clique’s Strategies and Their Failure, 1925–1931”, in War and Geopolitics in Interwar Manchuria: Zhang Zuolin and the Fengtian Clique during the Northern Expedition (Studies on Modern East Asian History; 1), Leiden, South Holland: Brill, →ISBN, page 90:
        The [Fengtian] Clique’s goal was not to conquer China but first to preserve its position in Manchuria and then to establish itself as one of the national leaders through war, alliance forming, seeking foreign recognition, and building up political authority.
      • 2022, Vivienne Xiangwei Guo, “The Beginning of the End: Wu Peifu and Good Government”, in Negotiating a Chinese Federation: The Exchange of Ideas and Political Collaborations between China’s Men of Guns and Men of Letters, 1919–1923 (Ideas, History, and Modern China; 28), Leiden, South Holland; Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 143:
        And, in this year, Wu Peifu, by defeating the Fengtian Clique in the Zhili-Fengtian Clique War, also reached the zenith of his power and influence.

Alternative forms

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  • click (humorous or informal)

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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  • claque (“group of people who pre-arrange among themselves to express strong support for an idea”)

Proper noun

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the clique

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Clique (ellipsis of Skeleton Clique (“the fan base of the American band Twenty One Pilots”)).
    • 2016 October 26, Catherine Wiesehuegel, “Skeleton Clique Shows Support for Twenty One Pilots”, in The Horizon‎[4], Austin, Tex.: Westwood Student Press, Westwood High School, archived from the original on 24 October 2025:
      The Skeleton Clique, often referred to as just 'the clique,' is what members of the Twenty One Pilots fandom have dubbed themselves. The clique enjoys the band because their songs typically have a deeper meaning and are easy to connect to.

Verb

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clique (third-person singular simple present cliques, present participle cliquing, simple past and past participle cliqued)

  1. (intransitive, informal) Often followed by together.
    1. To form a clique (“small, exclusive group of