# bloc
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from French bloc (“group, block”), ultimately of Old Dutch origin, from Frankish or Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”). Doublet of block.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /blɒk/
* (General American) IPA: /blɑk/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒk
* Homophone: block

### Noun

bloc (plural blocs)
* A group of voters or politicians who share common goals.
** 2020, Geoffrey Skelley, Nathaniel Rakich, “Two Special Elections On Tuesday Could Hint At Another Blue Wave In 2020”, in FiveThirtyEight:But a huge bloc of non-Hispanic white residents without bachelor’s degrees — 72 percent of the population age 25 or older — has turned the 7th District into Republican turf.
* A group of countries acting together for political or economic goals, an alliance.
    military bloc
    trading bloc
** 2023 August 17, “The BRICS bloc is riven with tensions”, in The Economist‎, →ISSN:Like the iPod and MySpace, the BRICS bloc is a product of the benign optimism of the 2000s.

#### Derived terms

* antibloc
* Atlantic bloc
* black bloc
* bloc chip
* bloc party
* blocwide
* Eastern Bloc
* interbloc
* intrabloc
* nonbloc
* padded bloc
* Soviet Bloc
* superbloc
* trade bloc
* Western Bloc

#### Translations
### See also

* choc-a-bloc

### Anagrams

* CLOB, LCBO

## Catalan
### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈblɔk]

### Etymology 1

Borrowed from French bloc.

#### Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)
* block
* pad, notebook
* bloc

##### Derived terms

* bloc de cases
* bloc de dibuix
* bloc de notes
* bloc de paper
* bloc de pisos
* bloc motor
* bloc-diagrama
* en bloc

##### Related terms

* monobloc

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from English blog.

#### Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)
* Obsolete spelling of blog.

##### Usage notes

* Recommend spelling (by TERMCAT) until 2013, when blog was accepted by the IEC.

### Further reading

* “bloc” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “bloc”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “bloc” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “bloc” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
* “bloc” in termcat, Centre de Terminologia, 2025.

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle French bloc (“a considerable piece of something heavy, block”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Frankish or Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /blɔk/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)
* a block (e.g., of wood)
* a bloc, an alliance
* a pad of paper
* (computing) block (of memory, of code)

#### Derived terms

* à bloc
* bloc cardiaque
* bloc de béton
* bloc de départ
* bloc moteur
* bloc opératoire
* Bloc Québécois
* bloc-note
* commentaire en bloc
* en bloc
* faire bloc
* nier en bloc
* tout d’un bloc

#### Descendants

* → Asturian: bloque
* → Bulgarian: блок (blok)
* → Czech: bloc
* → English: bloc
* → Galician: bloque
* → Irish: bloc
* → Italian: bloc
* → Macedonian: блок (blok)
* → Norwegian: block
* → Persian: بلوک (blok)
* → Polish: blok
* → Portuguese: bloco
* → Romanian: bloc
* → Russian: блок (blok)
** → Armenian: բլոկ (blok)
** → Yakut: блок (blok)
* → Spanish: bloc, bloque
* → Turkish: blok
* → Welsh: bloc

### Further reading

* “bloc”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Irish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English block or from a Romance language.

### Noun

bloc m (genitive singular bloic, nominative plural bloic)
* block

#### Declension

bare forms
case
singular
plural
nominative
bloc
bloic
vocative
a bhloic
a bhloca
genitive
bloic
bloc
dative
bloc
bloic
forms with the definite article
case
singular
plural
nominative
an bloc
na bloic
genitive
an bhloic
na mbloc
dative
leis an mbloc don bhloc
leis na bloic :

#### Derived terms

* bloc árasán m (“block of flats”)
* bloc fir m (“stocky man”)
* bloc-chlár m (“blockboard”)
* blocadóir m (“block-maker”)
* blocáil (“block”, verb)
* blocán m (“small block; stocky person; blockhead; coal-fish”)
* blocdhéanmhas m (“block structure”)
* blocléaráid f (“block diagram”)
* bloclitir f (“block letter”)
* blocphriontáil f (“(act of) blockprinting”)
* craosbhloc m (“breech-block”)
* cróbhloc m (“deadeye”)
* mítéarbhloc m (“mitre-block”)
* próisbhloc m (“process-block”)
* sclóinbhloc m (“swivel block”)
* tacabhloc m (“pillow-block”)
* V-bhloc m (“V-block”)

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### References

* Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “bloc”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
* Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “bloc”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French bloc, German Blockhaus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈblok/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ok

### Noun

bloc n (plural blocuri)
* block (a big chunk of solid matter)
    Synonym: bucată
    bloc de gheață ― block of ice
* a heap or an ensemble of objects of the same type that form a unity
    bloc de desen ― drawing block
* apartment building
    Synonym: (rare) blochaus
* (politics) bloc
    Synonym: alianță

#### Derived terms

* în bloc
* bloc de desen
* bloc motor
* bloc cardiac
* bloc operator

### Further reading

* bloc in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from French bloc. Doublet of block and bloque.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈblok/ [ˈblok]
* Rhymes: -ok
* Syllabification: bloc

### Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)
* pad (such as of paper)

### Further reading

* “bloc”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Welsh
### Etymology

Borrowed from English block.

### Noun

bloc m (plural blociau)
* block

#### Derived terms

* bloc fflatiau (“apartment block”)
* grant bloc (“block grant”)

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.