CLIQUES Synonyms: 54 Similar and Opposite Words

cliques

noun

plural of clique

as in networks

a group of people sharing a common interest and relating together socially that clique refuses to even talk to outsiders at their lunch table

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of cliques Their parties became notorious even in my own cliques; my parents knew to expect at least a few dozen teenagers crashing their party, sucking down all the noodles, and sneaking beers in the canyon down below. —

Natasha Pickowicz, Vogue, 20 Feb. 2026 This graph had no cliques — clusters of nodes that are all connected to one another. —

Leila Sloman, Quanta Magazine, 28 Jan. 2026 What began as a search for community and understanding turned into an experience that felt akin to the cliques and social hierarchies of high school. —

Hannah Nwoko, Parents, 25 Jan. 2026 These internal cliques, or deputy gangs, which have been tied to specific LASD precincts, have names like the Banditos, the Grim Reapers, and the Regulators. —

Jesse Hyde, Rolling Stone, 21 Oct. 2025 At the Dallas Street property, small cliques of armed men, mostly Venezuelans and Mexicans, fought an ongoing turf war. —

Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025 And there's hierarchy and cliques and clubs and all these different things. —

H. Alan Scott jennifer Cunningham, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025 Even today, Heathers' spin on cliques, teen suicide, and homosexuality still has bite. —

Michelle Kung, EW.com, 18 Aug. 2025 The film, set at a suburban Chicago high school, stars Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall as five teenagers from vastly different cliques who spend a life-altering Saturday in detention. —

Pamela McClintock, HollywoodReporter, 16 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cliques

Noun

Some team owners and networks care about the potential drop in production value.

— Mac Engel April 2, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2 Apr. 2026
These platforms must forge collaborative networks that mutually reinforce one another and establish a rigorous framework that makes the cultural values of the biennial format legible, tangible, and palpable to various segments of society in the immediate locale and across the continent.

— Smooth Nzewi, Artforum, 2 Apr. 2026