cluster
Forms
- Plural
- clusters
- present (v1)
- cluster
- past (v2)
- clustered
- past participle (v3)
- clustered
- present participle
- clustering
- 3rd person singular
- clusters
Definitions
1.A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
- A cluster of flowers grew in the pot.
- A leukemia cluster has developed in the town.
- The Pleiades cluster contains seven bright stars.
2.A number of individuals (animals or people) collected in one place or grouped together; a crowd, a mob, a swarm.
3.Euphemistic form of clusterfuck (“a chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong”).(slang)
1.To collect (animals, people, objects, data points, etc) into clusters (noun sense 1).
- Not less the bee would range her cells, / The furzy prickle fire the dells, / The foxglove cluster dappled bells.
- The consciousness of such an action will give her features a nobler life on this illustrious day, than all the jewels that can hang in her hair or can be clustered in her bosom.
2.To cover (with clusters); to scatter or strew in clusters (within); to distribute (objects) within such that they form clusters.
- The sea is clustered with islands.
3.To form a cluster or group; to assemble, to gather.
- The children clustered around the puppy.
- Around the little bud clustereth volumes of high and pure thoughts.
- All that is hard and harsh, and graceless in nature clustereth around her.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3753
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English cluster (“bunch, cluster, spray; compact body or mass, ball”) [and other forms], from Old English cluster, clyster (“cluster, bunch, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *klas-, *klus- (“to clump, lump together”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; to clench; to amass”)) + *-þrą (suffix forming nouns denoting an instrument or tool). The English word is probably a doublet of clot.