cluster
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: klŭsˈ-tər
ipa: /ˈklʌstə/
ipa: /ˈklʌstɚ/
rhymes: -ʌstə(ɹ)
Forms: form: clusters
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.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Dutch klister (“cluster”) (dialectal)
* Icelandic klasi (“cluster; bunch of grapes”)
* Low German Kluuster (“cluster”)
* Swedish kluster (“cluster”)
Senses: examples: text: a cluster of islands
text: A cluster of flowers grew in the pot.
text: Her deeds vvere like great gluſters of ripe grapes, / VVhich load the bunches of the fruitfull vine: / Offring to fall into each mouth that gapes, / And fill the ſame vvith ſtore of timely vvine.
ref: 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature D, recto:
text: VVoe is mee, for I am as when they haue gathered the ſummer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluſter to eate: my ſoule deſired the firſt ripe fruit.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Micah 7:1, column 1:
text: The Father of Nic. Fontanus ſavv five Vertebræ or VVhirle-bones of the Spina in a cluſter like a round ball, in the Body of a Porter that carried burthens.
ref: 1662, Bartholinus [i.e., Thomas Bartholin], “Of the Back-bone and Its Vertebra’s in General”, in Nicholas Culpeper, Abdiah Cole, transl., Bartholinus Anatomy; […] (The Physitian’s Library), London: […] Peter Cole […], →OCLC, 4th and last manual (Of the Bones and also of the Gristles and Ligaments […]), page 349, column 2:
text: Then I ſavv in my Dream, that theſe good Companions, vvhen Chriſtian vvas gone dovvn to the bottom of the Hill, gave him a loaf of Bread, a bottle of VVine, and a cluſter of Raiſins; and then he vvent on his vvay.
ref: 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 66:
text: [A]ll the cluſter of Iſlands lying South of the Audeman [i.e., Andaman] Iſlands are called by our Seamen the Nicobar Iſlands.
ref: 1697, William Dampier, chapter XVII, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 476:
text: Spread all thy Purple Cluſters, Tempting Vine, / And Thou, once Dreaded Foe, Bright Beauty, ſhine, […]
ref: 1713, Edward Young, “Book I”, in A Poem on the Last Day, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Edward Whistler, →OCLC, page 16:
text: Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs, […]
ref: 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, “The Descent of Santa Maria”, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC, page 66:
text: Charlie Mulgrew's delicious deadball delivery was attacked by a cluster of green and white shirts at [Allan] McGregor's back post but [Joe] Ledley got up higher and with more purpose than anyone else to thump a header home from five yards.
ref: 2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL [Scottish Premier League]: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record, Glasgow, Scotland: Reach plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2021:
text: The easiest way is to fly from Los Angeles to Christchurch, New Zealand—a journey of 17 hours, if you're lucky—and then to McMurdo, a charmless cluster of buildings that houses most of the southern continent's thousand or so seasonal residents and both of its ATMs.
ref: 2018 December 10, Jon Gertner, “The Race to Understand Antarctica’s Most Terrifying Glacier”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2023:
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
examples: text: The Pleiades cluster contains seven bright stars.
text: My fellow biotic: You have been selected to receive this transmission because of our shared plight. Few understand us, fewer tolerate us. We must stand together. We must build our own new world. Come. Join us in the Hawking Eta cluster. Only as one body can we right the wrongs done to our kind.
ref: 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City, Calif.: BioWare/Electronic Arts, →ISBN, PC, scene: Citadel:
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
A group of galaxies, nebulae, or stars that appear to the naked eye to be near each other.
synonyms: galaxy cluster
star cluster
hyponyms: globular cluster
open cluster
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
An ensemble of bound atoms (especially of a metal) or molecules, intermediate in size between a molecule and a bulk solid.
examples: text: A computer cluster is a collection of two or more computers used to execute a given problem or section. Typically, in a computer cluster, the interconnection network tying the computers together is a local area network (LAN). […] The computers in the cluster communicate among themselves and among the shared memory.
ref: 2011, Fayez Gebali, “Parallel Computers”, in Algorithms and Parallel Computing (Wiley Series on Parallel Computing and Distributed Computing; 82), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, section 3.7 (Cluster Computing), page 60:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
A group of computers that work together.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see block (noun)).
examples: text: A leukemia cluster has developed in the town.
topics: epidemiology
medicine
sciences
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
A group of cases of the same disease occurring around the same place or time.
examples: text: examples of clusters would include in accordance with, so far, and the results of
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
Synonym of lexical bundle (“a sequence of two or more words that occur in a language with high frequency but are not idiomatic”).
synonyms: word: bundle
word: chunk
word: lexical bundle
extra: a sequence of two or more words that occur in a language with high frequency but are not idiomatic
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
A set of bombs or mines released as part of the same blast.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
In full oak leaf cluster: a small bronze or silver device shaped like a twig of oak leaves and acorns which is worn on a ribbon to indicate that the wearer has been conferred the same award or decoration before; an oakleaf.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
A secundal chord of three or more notes.
examples: text: The word scrub begins with a cluster of three consonants.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
A pronounceable group of consonants that occur together: a consonant cluster.
topics: mathematics
sciences
statistics
glosses: A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.
In cluster analysis: a subset of a population whose members are similar enough to each other and distinct from others as to be considered a separate group; also, such a grouping in a set of observed data that is statistically significant.
examples: text: VVe lou'd him, / But like Beaſts / And Covvardly Nobles, / Gaue vvay vnto your Cluſters, vvho did hoote / Him out o' th' Citty.
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi], page 24, column 2:
text: [T]hey all alight, and then they go to the ſecond gate, and if peraduenture they cannot get in, they ſit there vvithout, as Bees doe in the Sunne, all in a cluſter.
ref: 1625, [Samuel] Purchas, “The Voyage of Sir Francis Alvarez [i.e., Francisco Álvares], a Portugall Priest, Made vnto the Court of Prete Ianni, the Great Christian Emperour of Ethio”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 2nd part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 7th book, § IIII, page 1045:
text: As Bees / In ſpring time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, / Poure forth their populous youth about the Hive / In cluſters; they among freſh dews and flowers / Flie to and fro, […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 768–772:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 May–June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2013, pages 206–207:
glosses: A number of individuals (animals or people) collected in one place or grouped together; a crowd, a mob, a swarm.
glosses: Euphemistic form of clusterfuck (“a chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong”).
Derived terms: Beowulf cluster
bicluster
Chevrel cluster
cluster A personality disorder
cluster-ball
clusterball
cluster ballooning
cluster bomb
cluster B personality disorder
clustercentric
cluster chord
cluster compound
clustercore
cluster C personality disorder
cluster development
cluster F-bomb
cluster feeding
cluster fig
cluster fly
cluster-fuck
cluster fuck
clusterful
clustergram
clusterhead
cluster headache
clusterin
clusterisation
clusterization
clusterize
clusterless
clusterlike
clustermap
cluster munition
cluster of differentiation
clusterogram
clusterous
cluster picking
cluster pine
cluster poison
cluster research
cluster respiration
cluster set
clustersome
cluster state
cluster variable
clusterwide
clusterwise
cluster-wise
clustery
cluster zoning
clustrocentric
clutchable
cocluster
consonant cluster
constraint cluster
decluster
dicluster
flower cluster
galaxy cluster
globular cluster
glycocluster
grapheme cluster
heterocluster
homocluster
hypercluster
intercluster
intracluster
iron-sulfur cluster
iron-sulphur cluster
macrocluster
megacluster
mesocluster
metacluster
metallocluster
microcluster
minicluster
miscluster
multicluster
nanocluster
open cluster
phenocluster
phosphocluster
protocluster
serocluster
silver cluster cactus
star cluster
subcluster
supercluster
super cluster
thorn cluster
tone cluster
twisted cluster bean
uncluster