clique

In the social sciences, a clique (CanE, or ) is a group of people who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and middle childhood, they exist in all age groups. Generally people in a clique will not have a completely open friend group, and they can "ban" members of the clique if they do something deemed to be unacceptable, such as talking to someone generally disliked by the clique.