Consequential strangers are personal connections other than family and close friends. Also known as "peripheral" or "weak" ties, they lie in the broad social territory between strangers and intimates.

What are the differences between friends and consequential strangers?

Friends provide practical help and useful advice when serious problems arise. ... Consequential strangers: people who are not in a person's closet friendship circle but nonetheless have an impact.

Is an acquaintance a stranger?

is that acquaintance is (uncountable) a state of being acquainted, or of having intimate, or more than slight or superficial, knowledge; personal knowledge gained by intercourse short of that of friendship or intimacy while stranger is a person whom one does not know; a person who is neither a friend nor an ...