(pronounced KLAK)

When we hear this word it makes us think of “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers,” the hosts of Car Talk, one of our favorite shows on National Public Radio. But we digress… This claque refers to a group of false flatterers who only offer praise to someone or some cause because they are hoping to personally benefit from it in some way. It can even go so far as to describe a group of people who are hired to applaud at a performance. Sad, so sad.

Example: Certain famous architects are regularly attended by a claque of hangers-on who strive to raise their own profiles by associating their name with these targets of the media’s attention.