clique
circle
coterie
group
set
club
incline, is more formal and less vivid than climb’, ascending the steep face of the mountain. In metaphorical uses, the word can affect a religious or spiritual overtone: a prayer for peace ascending from the hearts of all men. Rise is even less colorful than ascend’, because of its openness to implications provided by context, it has a wide range of abstract uses: if prices rise. See arise.
Antonyms: descend, fall.
These words refer to a small cluster of friends that excludes outsiders and confers status on those who belong. Of these, clique is the most pejorative in tone and points to the fewest members. It also most strongly suggests both secrecy and snobbishness; in its quasi-official rigidity, in fact, it may all but resemble a social club: a clearly defined clique of teen-age girls who set style and fashion for their whole high school; a clique of conservative officers within the War Ministry. No person would describe his closest friends and himself as a clique — except to disparage them and himself. Circle, by contrast, carries no pejorative judgment and could be used descriptively either by an outsider or by a member of a social cluster: a circle of impressionist painters in the 1890’s; my circle of friends. The word implies less intimacy than clique, but does suggest mutuality of interests, frequency of gathering, and, possibly, decorous civility carried out on a more formal social scale than clique: Mme. de Stael and her circle of intelligentsia.
Coterie, although more formal than either, more closely resembles clique than circle. It is not necessarily so pejorative as clique, however, and points to a larger cluster of friends with perhaps wider interests, less exclusive status, and with the possibility of greater social fluidity. While every member of a clique or circle, for example, would be well acquainted with every other member, the members of a coterie might be more on a more personal or familiar basis. Also, a clique or circle might point more strictly to sociability as a motivating factor, while coterie may more often suggest some uniting ideal or purpose beyond mere camaraderie: the coterie of Fabian socialists whose ideals were ultimately embodied in the Labor Party.
Group and set are much less restricted in meaning than these other words. Group, when referring to social clusters, may range in suggestiveness from the intense intimacy of clique to a much vaguer casualness that includes all the friends and acquaintances one happens to have: my group at college; a group of young mothers who met in the park over their baby carriages. Set indicates a much larger group of members than any of these other words; while it may be used pejoratively to point to snobbishness, like clique, it may be used more neutrally to indicate a particular social group that can be classified as to status and similar interests. Where clique all but suggests a club, set all but implies a class or caste of people. Most important, members of a set need not even know each other: modish dress that obviously indicated they were members of the fast-living, world-traveling jet set. Set, used of a smaller group, is even more emphatic about status, although this need not approach the snobbishness implicit in clique: falling in with a set of young executives who spend their weekends in the Hamptons. See club.
These words all apply to organized groups of people or things. A club suggests intimacy and informality as well as good fellowship. Clubs may be designed for a variety of purposes, but social clubs are usually of an exclusive nature; membership depends upon the personal judgment.
association
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feelings, or prejudices of the established members rather than upon any objective qualification. Political clubs, of course, are less exclusive, but the payment of dues and the attendance of periodic meetings of a more or less social nature characterize all clubs. The word club has lately become popular in commercial enterprises because of its pleasant connotations of comfort, relaxation, and fellowship; thus we find it used in book club, which is simply an association of potential book buyers for the purpose of obtaining a limited number of books at reduced prices. Association, then, applies to more formal and businesslike relationships that may obtain between organizations as well as individuals: the American Automobile Association’, the American Association of University Professors; an association of law schools.
Federation applies especially to a cooperative organization of states or semi-independent groups for a specific, mutual purpose, as to conduct foreign affairs, or, as in the case of the American Federation of Labor, to strengthen the bargaining position of each of its member unions. The most common sense of union refers to the labor union, an organization of workers that represents the collective interest of its members in dealing with their employer. In another sense union is close to league. A union or league is a combining of forces for some common end: the American Civil Liberties Union’, the League of Nations. But union sometimes signifies a closer and more enduring relationship than league : The United States is often called the Union.
Fraternity may refer to a fraternal society such as the Freemasons or to a Greek-letter fraternity of college students. The latter are usually social and are run very much like clubs’, but some fraternities are devoted to service, and others, like Phi Beta Kappa, have an intellectual basis for membership. A lodge is a local branch of a secret or fraternal society. Order denotes a society with common aims and obligations, as a fraternal order or a religious order : The Order of the Odd Fellows; the Masonic order’, the Franciscan order. A religious order is an organization of monks, nuns, or priests who have taken vows pledging themselves to live under a certain discipline or to perform certain social or religious duties. See clique.
These words refer to actions lacking in skill or grace or to the faulty results of such actions. Clumsy indicates halting or imprecise movement, a propensity for making mistakes, or to results that reflect these things: a clumsy walk; her clumsy attempt to match the colors of the original; a clumsy sweep of his hand that sent the vase toppling; the clumsy dialogue of the play. While the defects suggested by clumsy result from lack of muscular coordination, skill, talent, or training, awkward suggests similar but less serious defects that stem from misproportion or more especially from an unnerved state of mind: an awkward build; an awkward grammatical construction; a mutual suspicion that made for awkward silences in their talk; shyness that left her flustered and awkward. [One student’s work is sensitive but still awkward’, the others are without exception hopelessly clumsy.']
Bungling specifically stresses a propensity for making mistakes, and to an even greater degree than is true for clumsy. It also focuses on the inexpert handling of delicate matters rather than a clumsy physical carriage: his bungling mismanagement of the whole affair. Similarly, inept refers less to physical movement than to an abject and total failure to accomplish a desired result: a completely inept attempt at humor; an inept movie.
club
(continued)
federation
fraternity
league
lodge
order
union
clumsy
awkward
bungling
gawky
inept
lumbering
ungainly
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