What does clientele mean?
Clientele is a noun referring collectively to the customers, clients, or patrons who regularly use the services of a particular business, professional, or establishment. Rather than naming one person, it names the whole body of them: a salon's clientele, a lawyer's clientele, a nightclub's clientele. The word carries a somewhat formal or elevated tone compared with plainer alternatives like 'customers', which is why it appears so often in marketing, hospitality writing, and descriptions of upscale venues — an 'exclusive clientele' sounds more refined than 'rich customers'. It can also describe the habitual visitors of any place, occasionally with a faintly disapproving edge when the company is less than respectable. Borrowed from French in the seventeenth century, it ultimately derives from the Latin cliens, meaning a dependent or follower. Treat it as a singular collective noun, though plural agreement is also acceptable.
nounThe body of regular customers or clients who patronize a business, professional practice, or establishment. It can also refer more broadly to a group of people who habitually frequent or are served by a particular person, place, or service.
- The collective body of regular customers or clients of a business, professional, or establishment.
- A group of people who habitually frequent a particular place or are associated with a particular activity (sometimes with a slightly disapproving tone, e.g. the bar's rough clientele).
"The boutique's clientele consists largely of young professionals from the surrounding neighbourhood."
"The restaurant has built a loyal clientele over its thirty years on the high street."
"The gallery attracts an affluent clientele willing to pay premium prices for contemporary art."
Rarely used; the plural appears mainly when contrasting the customer bases of several different businesses or professionals.
"The two firms serve very different clienteles despite sharing the same building."
Borrowed straight from French in the 1600s, 'clientele' lets a hairdresser say 'my clientele' instead of 'my customers' — and instantly sound a little more exclusive.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clientele
Clientele entered English in the early seventeenth century as a borrowing from French clientèle, at first denoting the relationship or body of dependants of a Roman patron — reflecting the ancient system in which a cliens (client) sought protection from a patronus. The Latin root cliens meant a follower or dependent, and it also gives English the word 'client'. Over time the term shifted from this legal-historical sense to its modern commercial meaning of a business's regular customers.
How clientele is actually used
Formal to neutral in register; common in business, hospitality, and professional-service contexts. In British English it is often treated as a singular collective noun ('the clientele is'), though plural agreement ('the clientele are') is also widely accepted. A slightly pejorative shade can appear when describing the sort of people who frequent a disreputable place.
Easily confused with clientele
A client is a single individual customer or someone receiving professional services, while clientele refers collectively to the whole body of such customers.