| CIRCLES | Groups of friends or young literary buffs; circus rings; or, shape forming patterns in cereal crops and associated with magic (7) |
| GIRDLES | Shape-forming undergarments |
| EYELET | Grommet for receiving a shoe's lace or sail's cord; a peephole; or, one of a series of perforations forming patterns in broderie anglaise (6) |
| RING | Red, yellow, green, blue or black, one of the five interlocking shapes forming the symbol of the Olympic Games (4) |
| SAWDUSTY | Maxim, rather outdated, describing circus rings? (8) |
| PALS | Groups of friends or workmates who joined the British Army in World War One were sometimes kept together in " battalions". (4) |
| COTERIES | Small exclusive groups of friends or people with common interests (8) |
| BUNCHES | Handfuls of amaryllis, holly, ivy, paperwhites or other flowers or foliage; clusters of grapes; hands of bananas; or, groups of friends (7) |
| CIRCLE | Planet's orbit; social group of friends; or, a parallel of latitude (6) |
| CATSPAWS | Dupes/pawns; offshore swivel knots; breezes forming patterns of ripples of the same name; or, feline feet (4-4) |
| CROPCIRCLE | Studied in cereology, any one of various rings or patterns of flattened corn in arable fields, popularly attributed to aliens, ancient spirits or UFOs (4,6) |
| COTERIE | A small, exclusive group of friends or people with common interests, clique (7) |
| WORM | A type of creeping or burrowing invertebrate animal with long slender body and no limbs, segmented in rings or parasitic in the intestines or tissues |
| CLIQUE | A small, exclusive group of friends or associates (6) |
| GANG | Group of friends or criminals (4) |
| GREEN | One of the colours of the Olympic rings or of the emblem of Pyeongchang (5) |
| IDOL | From Greek for "form" or "shape", word for a false god, effigy, carving or image of a deity, revered as an object of worship; a phantom; or, a celebrity, hero, heroine, superstar etc, greatly admired, |
| SLEEPERS | Plain earrings in the form of little gold hoops or rings; or, beams supporting railway tracks (8) |
| DACTYLIOLOGY | From Greek for "finger", a term for the study or lore of finger-rings or of engraved antique gems (12) |
| MAIZE | Puzzling arrangement of plants reported in cereal crop (5) |