- 1a group of things of the same type that grow or appear close together a cluster of stars The plant bears its flowers in clusters. a leukaemia cluster (= an area where there are more cases of the disease than you would expect) Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivelittle, small, large, … prepositionin a/the cluster, cluster of See full entry
- 2a group of people, animals or things close together a cluster of spectators a little cluster of houses Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivelittle, small, large, … prepositionin a/the cluster, cluster of See full entry
- 3 (phonetics) a group of consonants which come together in a word or phrase, for example /str/ at the beginning of string a consonant cluster Wordfinderpronunciationcluster, consonant, diphthong, elide, intonation, phonetics, pronunciation, stress, tone, voiced See related entries: Phonetics Word OriginOld English clyster; probably related to clot.Extra examples The church stood in a small cluster of houses. a dense cluster of buildings A woman had emerged from the cluster of buildings. Doctors are worried about what appear to be cancer clusters occurring in these areas. The bacteria form clusters in the gut of the host animal. The plants have clusters of white flowers in early June. The telescope is focused on a dense cluster of stars at the edge of the galaxy.
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