Cluster

How to spell cluster

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cluster

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cluster mean?

1. nounA group of similar things positioned or occurring closely together.
2. verbTo gather or come together into a close group.

Cluster in a sentence

• noun

  A cluster of houses sat at the edge of the village.

• verb

  Tourists tend to cluster around the most famous paintings.

• noun

  The report flagged a cluster of complaints from one department.

• verb

  The data points cluster near the average value.

Where does cluster come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a genuinely old native English word, descending from the Old English clyster, which meant a bunch or a tight group, especially of grapes, nuts, or berries growing together. It belongs to the Germanic family of words and is closely related to 'clot' and the dialect word 'cluster' for a sticky lump, all of which share the idea of small things massing into one solid bundle. For centuries it described things found in nature, such as a cluster of flowers or stars, before broadening to cover any group of people or objects packed closely together. The verb sense, meaning to gather into such a group, developed naturally from the noun. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable: the simple clust- core followed by the everyday -er ending leaves little room for error, which is why the word rarely trips up adult writers.

How the word is built

• clust- (Old English clyster: a bunch, cluster)
• -er (noun ending)