Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A group of nations, parties, or persons united for common action.
  • noun An often bipartisan coalition of legislators acting together for a common purpose or interest.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a group of voters or politicians who share common goals
  • noun a group of countries acting together for political or economic goals, an alliance: e.g., the eastern bloc, the western bloc, a trading bloc

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a group of countries in special alliance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, block; see block.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French bloc ("group, block"), from Middle French bloc ("a considerable piece of something heavy, block"), from Old French bloc ("log, block"), from Middle Dutch blok ("treetrunk"), from Old Saxon *blok ("log"), from Proto-Germanic *bluk(k)an (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhulg'-, from *bhelg'- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old High German bloh, bloc (German Block, "block"), Old English bolca ("gangway of a ship, plank"), Old Norse bǫlkr (Norwegian bolk, "divider, partition"). More at balk.

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