From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcoterieco‧te‧rie /ˈkəʊtəri $ ˈkoʊ-/ noun [countable] formal GROUP OF PEOPLEa small group of people who enjoy doing the same things together, and do not like including others → clique
Examples from the Corpus
coterie• Directly below the king was a coterie of intellectuals possessing mind of the highest order.• Normally it comes from what she likes to call her coterie of friends and advisers.• Yet what our little coterie suffered was, I believe, disproportionate to our vices.• His loyal coterie of fans crowded the stage.• My guess would be that they are the same advisers or perhaps from the same coterie of advisers.• That coterie would also act, as they did for the 1991 event, very much as a think tank.Origin coterie (1700-1800) French Old French, “group of farmers renting land”, from an unrecorded Old French cotier “someone who lives in a cottage, farmer”, from Medieval Latin cotarius, from English cot; → COTTAGE 