Definition of "cluster"

A bunch or group of several discrete items that are close to each other.  quotations

1. (astronomy) A group of galaxies, nebulae, or stars that appear to the naked eye to be near each other.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City, Calif.: BioWare/Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Citadel

2. (chemistry) An ensemble of bound atoms (especially of a metal) or molecules, intermediate in size between a molecule and a bulk solid.  examples

3. (computing)

   1. A group of computers that work together.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • 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.

        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, section 3.7 (Cluster Computing), page 60

   2. A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see block (noun)).  examples

4. (epidemiology) A group of cases of the same disease occurring around the same place or time.

5. (linguistics) Synonym of lexical bundle (“a sequence of two or more words that occur in a language with high frequency but are not idiomatic”)  examples

6. (military)

   1. A set of bombs or mines released as part of the same blast.  examples

   2. (US) 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.  examples

7. (music) A secundal chord of three or more notes.  examples

8. (phonetics) A pronounceable group of consonants that occur together.  examples

9. (statistics) In cluster analysis: a subset of a population whose members are sufficiently similar 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

A number of individuals (animals or people) collected in one place or grouped together; a crowd, a mob, a swarm.  quotations  examples

(slang) Euphemistic form of clusterfuck (“a chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong”).

(transitive, chiefly passive voice)

1. To collect (animals, people, or objects) into clusters (noun sense 1).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1712 February 17 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 294; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, page 294

   • Not less the bee would range her cells, / The furzy prickle fire the dells, / The foxglove cluster dappled bells.

     1833–1834 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “The Two Voices”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, page 121

2. To cover (with clusters); to scatter or strew in clusters (within); to distribute (objects) within such that they form clusters.  examples

(intransitive)

1. To form a cluster or group; to assemble, to gather.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [T]he fruite cluſtereth togyther lyke to ſmal grapes, which in the beginning is greene, and afterwarde when it is ripe, al blacke.

     1578, Rembert Dodoens, “Of Brionie”, in Henry Lyte, transl., A Niewe Herball, or Historie of Plantes: […], London [actually Antwerp]: […] [Hendrik van der Loe for] Gerard Dewes, […], page 380

   • VVoes cluſter; rare are ſolitary VVoes; / They love a Train; they tread each other's Heel: […]

     1742, [Edward Young], “Night the Third. Narcissa. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and T. Cooper, […], page 6

   • I met a little cottage girl, / She was eight years old, she said; / Her hair was thick with many a curl / That cluster'd round her head.

     1798, [William Wordsworth], “We are Seven”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], stanza 2, page 110

   • Oh grief to think, that grapes of gall / Should cluster round thine healthiest shoot!

     1827, [John Keble], “Thursday before Easter”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], stanza 4, page 134

   • [H]is sunny hair / Clustered about his temples like a God's: […]

     1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Œnone”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], page 54

   • The luscious fruitage clustereth mellowly, / Goldenkernelled, goldencored, / Sunset-ripened above on the tree.

     1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Hesperides”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], stanza IV, page 106

   • While their soft and humid kisses / To her conscious lips they press, / Like a spiral sunbeam floating, / Clustereth every golden tress; […]

     1853 August, Fanny Green, “Spirit Guests”, in The Journal of Progress; […], volume II, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Harmonial Association, page 12, column 2

   • It is Thou, Lord, who hast put far from us these sorrows, who still sparest every member of our household, the olive-branches round about our table, and the vine that clustereth on the walls of our house.

     1854, Barton Bouchier, “Thursday Morning”, in The Ark in the House: Or, A Series of Family Prayers for a Month; with Prayers for Special Occasions, London: John Farquhar Shaw, […], page 205

   • Around the little bud clustereth volumes of high and pure thoughts.

     1855, Charles Linton, chapter XV, in The Healing of the Nations. […], New York, N.Y.: Society for the Diffusion of Spiritual Knowledge, paragraph 156, page 244

   • All that is hard and harsh, and graceless in nature clustereth around her.

     1864 July 3, Ada Clare, The “Blue Stocking”; reproduced in “Ada Clare (1836–1874)”, in Ida Rae Egli, editor, No Rooms of Their Own: Women Writers of Early California, Berkeley, Calif.: Heyday Books in association with Rick Heide, 1992, page 326

   • On the page, "Me" [a poem by Rachel Blau DuPlessis] is irregular but—except for a prominent drawing of a two-toned hieroglyphic eye—not radically unusual: the lines are consistently left-justified; their length varies from one to a dozen syllables; they cluster in stanzalike units anywhere from one to six lines long that are separated by consistent spaces.

     1997, Lynn Keller, “Grand Collage Out of Bounds: Feminist Serial Poems by Beverly Dahlen and Rachel Blau DuPlessis”, in Forms of Expansion: Recent Long Poems by Women, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, page 281