For a given clutter 6516300218&_mathId=si1.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0097316516300218&_rdoc=1&_issn=00973165&md5=f1c4c21c5e4486a05fc8c4070a4a2046" title="Click to view the MathML source">C, let 6516300218&_mathId=si2.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0097316516300218&_rdoc=1&_issn=00973165&md5=173f6632d48ddf79816a4af2aed3855c">6516300218-si2.gif"> be the circuit ideal in the polynomial ring S. In this paper, we show that the Betti numbers of I and 6516300218&_mathId=si3.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0097316516300218&_rdoc=1&_issn=00973165&md5=346932ffd4ca253a9256c6f3e40976c2" title="Click to view the MathML source">I+(xF) are the same in their non-linear strands, for some suitable 6516300218&_mathId=si4.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0097316516300218&_rdoc=1&_issn=00973165&md5=01a9f6217b4d1c475245a517cfb88891" title="Click to view the MathML source">F∈C. Motivated by this result, we introduce a class of clutters that we call chordal. This class is a natural extension of the class of chordal graphs and has the nice property that the circuit ideal associated to the complement of any member of this class has a linear resolution over any field. Finally we compare this class with all known families of clutters which generalize the notion of chordality, and show that our class contains several important previously defined classes of chordal clutters.