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Following vs Clientele vs Public vs Audience

Followingclientelepublicaudience are comparable when they denote the body of persons who attach themselves to another especially as disciples, patrons, or admirers.

Following is the most comprehensive term, applicable to a group that follows either as a physical train or retinue or as the adherents of a leader, the disciples of a philosopher, the customers of a salesman, the admirers of a young woman, or the fans of an actor.

Clientele is chiefly used of the persons, collectively, who go habitually for services to a professional man (as a lawyer or physician) or who give their patronage to a business establishment (as a hotel, a restaurant, or a shop).

Public basically denotes a group of people with a common interest and may come close to following in many of its applications (as to adherents, disciples, customers, and admirers); often, however, it distinctively conveys the notion of a group making active demands rather than one passively or admiringly following.

Audience is applicable to a following that listens with attention to what a person has to say whenever he addresses them (as in a speech or a book).

Audience, rather than spectators (see SPECTATOR ), is also the usual term for designating the body of persons attending a lecture, a play, or a concert on the assumption that they are there primarily to hear, only secondarily to see.