cluster
English

A cluster of mushrooms.

A star cluster
Etymology
From Middle English cluster, from Old English cluster, clyster (“cluster, bunch, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *klus-, *klas- (“to clump, lump together”) + Proto-Germanic *-þrą (instrumental suffix), related to Low German Kluuster (“cluster”), Dutch dialectal klister (“cluster”), Swedish kluster (“cluster”), Icelandic klasi (“cluster; bunch of grapes”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈklʌstə/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈklʌstɚ/
- Rhymes: -ʌstə(r)
Noun
cluster (plural clusters)
- A group or bunch of several discrete items that are close to each other.
- a cluster of islands
- (Can we date this quote?) Spenser
- Her deeds were like great clusters of ripe grapes, / Which load the bunches of the fruitful vine.
- 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict:
- Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs […] ,
- 2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record:
- Charlie Mulgrew’s delicious deadball delivery was attacked by a cluster of green and white shirts at McGregor’s back post but Ledley got up higher and with more purpose than anyone else to thump a header home from five yards.
- 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:
- Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
- A cluster of flowers grew in the pot.
- A leukemia cluster has developed in the town.
- A number of individuals grouped together or collected in one place; a crowd; a mob.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
- As bees […] / Pour forth their populous youth about the hive / In clusters.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- We loved him; but, like beasts / And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters, / Who did hoot him out o' the city.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
- (astronomy) A group of galaxies or stars that appear near each other.
- The Pleiades cluster contains seven bright stars.
- (linguistics, education) A sequence of two or more words that occur in language with high frequency but are not idiomatic; a chunk, bundle, or lexical bundle.
- examples of clusters would include "in accordance with", "the results of" and "so far"
- (music) A secundal chord of three or more notes.
- (phonetics) A group of consonants.
- The word "scrub" begins with a cluster of three consonants.
- (computing) A group of computers that work together.
- (computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see block).
- (statistics) A significant subset within a population.
- (military) Set of bombs or mines.
- (army) A small metal design that indicates that a medal has been awarded to the same person before.
- (chemistry) An ensemble of bound atoms or molecules, intermediate in size between a molecule and a bulk solid.
Derived terms
Translations
group or bunch of something
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group of galaxies or stars
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secundal chord of three or more notes
group of consonants
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group of computers working together
significant subset within a population
set of bombs or mines
metal design
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Verb
cluster (third-person singular simple present clusters, present participle clustering, simple past and past participle clustered)
- (intransitive) To form a cluster or group.
- The children clustered around the puppy.
- (Can we date this quote?) Tennyson
- His sunny hair / Cluster'd about his temples, like a god's.
- (Can we date this quote?) Foxe
- the princes of the country clustering together
- 1997, Lynn Keller, Forms of Expansion: Recent Long Poems by Women, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, chapter 6, 281:
- On the page, “Me” is irregular but—except for a prominent drawing of a two-toned hieroglyphic eye—not radically unusual: the lines are consistently left-justified; their length varies from one to a dozen syllables; they cluster in stanzalike units anywhere from one to six lines long that are separated by consistent spaces.
- (transitive) To collect into clusters.
- (transitive) To cover with clusters.
Translations
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈklʏs.tər/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: clus‧ter
- Rhymes: -ʏstər
Noun
cluster f or m or m (plural clusters, diminutive clustertje n)
- cluster
- (astronomy) star cluster
- Synonyms: sterrencluster, sterrenhoop, sterrenzwerm
Derived terms
- sterrencluster
Portuguese
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈklɐs.teʁ/
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