closed circle
Insular social set
A closed circle is a group that excludes outsiders—one that limits membership and resists new entrants.
Social cliques, elite clubs, and insular professional networks all form closed circles: Breaking into that closed circle of gallery owners took years.
The term can also describe reasoning that loops back on itself, immune to outside challenge.
- secret societyCovert fraternal organization
- cliqueExclusive social group
- velvet ropeLuxurious crowd-control barrier
- cocooningRetreating into domestic comfort
- eliteSuperior select group
country club · secrecy · inner sanctum · bubble · enclave · whodunit · privacy · need to know · exclusivity · insularity · cadre · isolation · confidentiality · detective fiction · locked room mystery · solitude · parlour game · armchair detective
- mysteryclue, detective, suspect, clues, sleuth
- mystery fictionwhodunit, whodunnit, sleuth, murder mystery, detective novel
- inner circlesinner ring, inner sanctum, in-group, ingroup, in-crowd
- spiritualismseance, mediumship, seances, medium, channeling
- snobberysnob, snobbery, snooty, elitism, snoot
- whodunitswhodunit, murder mystery, detective, sleuth, clue
closed circleopen society
Society permitting free inquiry
big tent · town hall · open door · open forum · public sphere
closed circlegeneral public
People as a whole
broad coalition · the masses · mass movement · public sphere · commons
closed, circle, close, closes, closing, closer, closest, closedness, enclose