Cluster

[kluhs-ter] /ˈklʌs tər/

noun
1.
a number of things of the same kind, growing or held together; a bunch:
a cluster of grapes.
2.
a group of things or persons close together:
There was a cluster of tourists at the gate.
3.
U.S. Army. a small metal design placed on a ribbon representing an awarded medal to indicate that the same medal has been awarded again:
oak-leaf cluster.
4.
Phonetics. a succession of two or more contiguous consonants in an utterance, as the str- cluster of strap.
5.
Astronomy. a group of neighboring stars, held together by mutual gravitation, that have essentially the same age and composition and thus supposedly a common origin.
Compare , , .
verb (used with object)
6.
to gather into a cluster or clusters.
7.
to furnish or cover with clusters.
verb (used without object)
8.
to form a cluster or clusters:
The people clustered around to watch.
/ˈklʌstə/
noun
1.
a number of things growing, fastened, or occurring close together
2.
a number of persons or things grouped together
3.
(US, military) a metal insignia worn on a medal ribbon to indicate a second award or a higher class of a decoration or order
4.
(military)

5.
(astronomy) an aggregation of stars or galaxies moving together through space
6.
a group of two or more consecutive vowels or consonants
7.
(statistics) a naturally occurring subgroup of a population used in stratified sampling
8.
(chem)

verb
9.
to gather or be gathered in clusters
n.

Old English clyster “cluster,” probably from the same root as clot (n.). Of stars, from 1727. Cluster-bomb attested from 1967.
v.

late 14c. (transitive), from cluster (n.). Intransitive sense from 1540s. Related: Clustered; clustering.

1. Multiple servers providing the same service. The term may imply resilience to failure and/or some kind of load balancing between the servers. Compare RAIS.
2. An elementary unit of allocation of a disk made up of one or more physical blocks.
A file is made up of a whole number of possibly non-contiguous clusters. The cluster size is a tradeoff between space efficiency (the bigger is the cluster, the bigger is on the average the wasted space at the end of each file) and the length of the FAT.
(1996-11-04)