Synonyms of clannish

clannish

adjective

ˈkla-nish 

as in cliquish

bound together by feelings of very close association

a clannish family that can be rather cool to outsiders

Synonyms & Similar Words

• cliquish
• friendly
• close-knit
• cliquey
• familiar
• close
• intimate
• tight
• bosom
• chummy
• inseparable
• snobbish
• incestuous
• pack
• snobby
• exclusive
• thick
• palsy-walsy
• inhospitable
• palsy
• unfriendly
• pally
• forbidding

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• receptive
• welcoming

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of clannish

This sort of soft, clannish corruption is not a coat of paint that can be stripped from the protectionist architecture; the dysfunction infests the very foundations of it. — David B. McGarry, Baltimore Sun, 30 Mar. 2025

Ambassadorships are often awarded to loyalists and supporters, but this appointment looks particularly clannish. — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 22 Jan. 2025

The model relies on a dramatic shift in relations among officers and prisoners, two historically warring factions in a system built on clannish gamesmanship for survival. — Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 29 July 2024

In Afghanistan, legitimate authority has traditionally been highly localized, a product of consensus rather than brute force, and firmly anchored in tribal, clannish, and kinship structures. — Jonah Blank, Foreign Affairs, 19 Aug. 2011