Today I was searching for a word that I'm fairly certain exists, but I can't find evidence of anywhere. I wanted to refer to a segment of the population, and I used the word "constituency" to describe a specific group of people. Apparently, this word has a specifically political context, e.g. "The senator's constituency voted him back into office."
Is there a word, specifically a word that sounds like constituency or contingency, that describes what I'm looking for? That is to say, a word that describes a segment of the population sans a political context.
Best Answer
Cohort
Could you be thinking of the word “cohort”? It starts with the letter “C,” and basically describes what you’re thinking of (albeit in a somewhat technical context): a segment of the population sharing some common element. Per Wikipedia:
Or, according to Merriam-Webster:
Community
This seems a little obvious, but it does start with a “C” and end in a “y,” and can describe a certain group within a population (“the medical community,” “the local community,” “the Scrabble-playing community." According to Google’s definition: