Definitions

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

  • noun A group of the same or similar elements gathered or occurring closely together; a bunch.
  • noun Linguistics Two or more successive consonants in a word, as cl and st in the word cluster.
  • noun A group of academic courses in a related area.
  • intransitive verb To gather or grow into bunches.
  • intransitive verb To cause to grow or form into bunches.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A number of things, as fruits, growing naturally together; a bunch, particularly ot grapes or other fruit growing similarly.
  • noun A number of persons or things of any kind collected or gathered into a close body; a nearly conjoined group or collection: as, a cluster of islands.
  • To form or constitute a cluster or clusters; grow or be placed in clusters or groups; gather in a group or groups.
  • To collect into a cluster or group.
  • To produce in a cluster or clusters.
  • To cover with clusters.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A number of things of the same kind growing together; a bunch.
  • noun A number of similar things collected together or lying contiguous; a group.
  • noun A number of individuals grouped together or collected in one place; a crowd; a mob.
  • transitive verb To collect into a cluster or clusters; to gather into a bunch or close body.
  • transitive verb (Arch.) a column which is composed, or appears to be composed, of several columns collected together.
  • intransitive verb To grow in clusters or assemble in groups; to gather or unite in a cluster or clusters.

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

  • noun A group or bunch of several discrete items that are close to each other.
  • noun astronomy A group of galaxies or stars that appear near each other.
  • noun music A secundal chord of three or more notes.
  • noun phonetics A group of consonants.
  • noun computing A group of computers that work together.
  • noun computing A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see block).
  • noun statistics A significant subset within a population.
  • noun military Set of bombs or mines.
  • noun army A small metal design that indicates that a medal has been awarded to the same person before.
  • verb intransitive To form into a cluster.

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

  • verb gather or cause to gather into a cluster
  • noun a grouping of a number of similar things
  • verb come together as in a cluster or flock

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English clyster.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cluster, from Old English cluster, clyster ("cluster, bunch, branch"), from Proto-Germanic *klus-, *klas- (“to clump, lump together”) + Proto-Germanic *-þran (instrumental suffix), related to Low German kluster ("cluster"), Dutch dialectal klister ("cluster"), Swedish kluster ("cluster"), Icelandic klasi ("cluster; bunch of grapes").

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Examples

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  • "Sweetheart, I need to find you here. I do believe that our love will bloom always fairer, fresher, more gracious, because it is a true love, and because genuine love is ever increasing. It is a beautiful plant growing from year to year in the heart, ever extending its palms and branches, doubling every season its glorious clusters and perfumes; and, my dear life, tell me, repeat to me always, that nothing bruise its bark or its delicate leaves, that it will grow larger in both our hearts, loves, free, watched over, like a life within our life..."

    - spam.

    October 26, 2009