coterie

[ koh-tuh-ree ]

/ ˈkoʊ tə ri /

a group of people who associate closely.

an exclusive group; clique.

a group of prairie dogs occupying a communal burrow.

Origin of coterie

1730–40; < French, Middle French: an association of tenant farmers < Medieval Latin coter(ius) cotter² + -ie -y³

1. See circle.

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

Do Corporations Believe in God? The ‘Hobby Lobby’ Case Has the Answer |Jay Michaelson |March 22, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Barbra Streisand and Denzel Washington, along with a coterie of A-listers, have sent their toddlers there.

Elite America’s Summer Preschool Madness |Eliza Shapiro |June 23, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Quick-witted, sharp-tongued, and flirtatious, Anne drew a coterie of men to her, and each would lose his head for her.

Why Does Anne Boleyn Obsess Us? |Lauren Elkin |April 25, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
While Aspinall provided the wealthy clientele, the mobsters provided a coterie of highly skilled cardsharps.

Lord Lucan’s Whereabouts: The Tabloid Rebirth of a Decades-Old Crime |William Coles |February 25, 2012 |DAILY BEAST

And President Bashar al-Assad, no doubt, sees that his coterie of regional despots is thinning out.

Can the Rebels Hang On? |Babak Dehghanpisheh |August 27, 2011 |DAILY BEAST
Shakespeare did not write for a coterie: yet he produced some works of considerable subtlety and profundity.

Play-Making |William Archer
But the king and his coterie were very angry, and assailed the duke in the most violent terms of condemnation.

Louis Philippe |John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
Cicily, my dear, I think you are well rid of that coterie of cats.

Making People Happy |Thompson Buchanan
Make her, therefore, of your coterie, if she is with you while the piece is in your possession.

The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, Vol. 1 (of 3) |Fanny Burney
Each had his coterie of friends and well wishers who had gathered to give him a rousing send off.

Bert Wilson's Twin Cylinder Racer |J. W. Duffield

coterie

/ (ˈkəʊtərɪ) /

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

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