Noun

(en noun)

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

a cluster of islands

* Spenser

Her deeds were like great clusters of ripe grapes, / Which load the bunches of the fruitful vine.

*{{quote-book, year=1907, author=

, chapter=7, title= The Dust of Conflict , passage=Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters , from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs

*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 29, author=Keith Jackson, work=Daily Record

, title= SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 , passage=Charlie Mulgrew’s delicious deadball delivery was attacked by a cluster of green and white shirts at McGregor’s back post but Ledley got up higher and with more purpose than anyone else to thump a header home from five yards.}}

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= William E. Conner

, title= An Acoustic Arms Race , volume=101, issue=3, page=206-7, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=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.}}

A number of individuals grouped together or collected in one place; a crowd; a mob.

* Milton

As bees / Pour forth their populous youth about the hive / In clusters .

* Shakespeare

We loved him; but, like beasts / And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters , / Who did hoot him out o' the city.

(astronomy) A group of galaxies or stars that appear near each other.

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

(phonetics) A group of consonants.

(computing) A group of computers that work together.

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

(statistics) A significant subset within a population.

(military) Set of bombs or mines.

(army) A small metal design that indicates that a medal has been awarded to the same person before.

An ensemble of bound atoms or molecules, intermediate in size between a molecule and a bulk solid.

Noun

(en noun)

(lb) A two-dimensional geometric figure, a line, consisting of the set of all those points in a plane that are equally distant from another point.

:The set of all points (x'', ''y'') such that (x-1)² + y² = r² is a circle of radius ''r around

A two-dimensional geometric figure, a disk, consisting of the set of all those points of a plane at a distance less than or equal to a fixed distance from another point.

Any thin three-dimensional equivalent of the geometric figures.

:

A curve that more or less forms part or all of a circle.

:

Orbit.

A specific group of persons.

:

* (1800-1859)

*:As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance widened.

*

*:At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle , a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

*

*:“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers,, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

*1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)

*:The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles .

(lb) A line comprising two semicircles of 30 yards radius centred on the wickets joined by straight lines parallel to the pitch used to enforce field restrictions in a one-day match.

(lb) A ritual circle that is cast three times deosil and closes three times widdershins either in the air with a wand or literally with stones or other items used for worship.

(lb) A traffic circle or roundabout.

*2011 , Charles E. Webb, Downfall and Freedom , p.120:

*:He arrived at the lakefront and drove around the circle where the amusement park and beach used to be when he was a kid

(lb) Compass; circuit; enclosure.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:in the circle of this forest

(lb) An instrument of observation, whose graduated limb consists of an entire circle. When fixed to a wall in an observatory, it is called a mural circle''; when mounted with a telescope on an axis and in Y's, in the plane of the meridian, a ''meridian'' or ''transit circle''; when involving the principle of reflection, like the sextant, a ''reflecting circle''; and when that of repeating an angle several times continuously along the graduated limb, a ''repeating circle .

A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain.

(lb) A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.

*(Joseph Glanvill) (1636-1680)

*:That heavy bodies descend by gravity; and, again, that gravity is a quality whereby a heavy body descends, is an impertinent circle and teaches nothing.

Indirect form of words; circumlocution.

* (1579-1625)

*:Has he given the lie, / In circle , or oblique, or semicircle.

A territorial division or district.

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