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Cluster vs Clutch - What's the difference?

cluster | clutch |

As nouns the difference between cluster and clutch

is that cluster is a group or bunch of several discrete items that are close to each other while clutch is the claw of a predatory animal or bird.

As verbs the difference between cluster and clutch

is that cluster is to form a cluster or group while clutch is to seize, as though with claws.

As an adjective clutch is

performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.

cluster

English

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.
  • Derived terms

    * cluster analysis * clustering * cluster bomb * globular cluster * open cluster * star cluster

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To form a cluster or group.
  • The children clustered around the puppy.
  • * Tennyson
  • His sunny hair / Cluster'd about his temples, like a god's.
  • * Foxe
  • the princes of the country clustering together

    Anagrams

    * * English collective nouns ----

    clutch

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) clucchen, clicchen, cluchen, clechen, cleken, from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) , of uncertain origin, with the form probably assimilated to the verb. Alternative etymology derives Old English clyccan from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l), (l), (l) (dialectal) * (l), (l), (l), (l) (dialectal) * (l) (obsolete)

    Verb

    (es)
  • To seize, as though with claws.
  • to clutch power
  • * Collier
  • A man may set the poles together in his head, and clutch the whole globe at one intellectual grasp.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Is this a dagger which I see before me ? / Come, let me clutch thee.
  • To grip or grasp tightly.
  • She clutched her purse tightly and walked nervously into the building.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Not that I have the power to clutch my hand.

    Noun

    (es)
  • The claw of a predatory animal or bird.
  • (by extension) A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil.
  • * Cowper
  • the clutch of poverty
  • * Carlyle
  • an expiring clutch at popularity
  • * Bishop Stillingfleet
  • I must have little care of myself, if I ever more come near the clutches of such a giant.
  • * 1919 ,
  • You scold yourself; you know it is only your nerves—and yet, and yet... In a little while it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you are helpless in the clutch of an unseen horror.
  • A device to interrupt power transmission, commonly used between engine and gearbox in a car.
  • The pedal in a car that disengages power transmission.
  • Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
  • A small handbag or purse with no straps or handle.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • The clutch which I had made to save myself in falling had torn away this chin-band and let the lower jaw drop on the breast; but little else was disturbed, and there was Colonel John Mohune resting as he had been laid out a century ago.
  • (US) An important or critical situation.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms
    * clutch bag (small handbag)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (US) Performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.
  • *
  • * 2009 , Scott Trocchia, The 2006 Yankees: The Frustration of a Nation, A Fan's Perspective , page 21:
  • I start with his most obvious characteristic: he was clutch'. He is Mr. '''Clutch'''. In the last chapter I mentioned that Bernie Williams was '''clutch''', which was a valid assessment, but nobody on the Yankees was as ' clutch as Jeter was.
  • *
  • Etymology 2

    Variant form of (cletch), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (es)
  • A brood of chickens or a sitting of eggs.
  • A group or bunch (of people or things).
  • * 2012 , The Economist, 22nd Sep., Innovation in Government: Britain's Local Labs
  • No longer would Britons routinely blame the national government when things went wrong. Instead they would demand action from a new clutch of elected mayors, police commissioners and the like.

    Alternative forms

    *

    Noun

    (nb-noun-m1)
  • a (l) (device between engine and gearbox )
  • clutch pedal
  • trå in clutchen - step on the clutch

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l)

    References

    * ----