different between cluster vs herd

English

Etymology

From Middle English cluster, from Old English cluster, clyster (“cluster, bunch, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *klus-, *klas- (“to clump, lump together”) + Proto-Germanic *-þr? (instrumental suffix), related to Low German Kluuster (“cluster”), dialectal Dutch klister (“cluster”), Swedish kluster (“cluster”), Icelandic klasi (“cluster; bunch of grapes”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kl?st?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?kl?st?/
• Rhymes: -?st?(r)

Noun

cluster (plural clusters)

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

   a cluster of islands

   • 1595, Edmund Spenser, Colin Clouts Come Home Againe

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

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

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

4. (linguistics, education) A sequence of two or more words that occur in language with high frequency but are not idiomatic; a chunk, bundle, or lexical bundle.

   examples of clusters would include "in accordance with", "the results of" and "so far"

5. (music) A secundal chord of three or more notes.
6. (phonetics) A group of consonants.

7. (computing) A group of computers that work together.
8. (computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see block).
9. (statistics, cluster analysis) A subset of a population whose members are sufficiently similar to each other and distinct from others as to be considered a distinct group; such a grouping in a set of observed data that is statistically significant.
10. (military) A set of bombs or mines released as part of the same blast.
11. (army) A small metal design that indicates that a medal has been awarded to the same person before.
12. (slang, euphemistic) A clusterfuck.
13. (chemistry) An ensemble of bound atoms or molecules, intermediate in size between a molecule and a bulk solid.

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

cluster (third-person singular simple present clusters, present participle clustering, simple past and past participle clustered)

1. (intransitive) To form a cluster or group.

   The children clustered around the puppy.

   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Oenone

     His sunny hair / Cluster'd about his temples, like a god's.

   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     the princes of the country […] clustering together

   • 1997, Lynn Keller, Forms of Expansion: Recent Long Poems by Women, University of Chicago Press, ?ISBN, chapter 6, 281:

     On the page, “Me” is irregular but—except for a prominent drawing of a two-toned hieroglyphic eye—not radically unusual: the lines are consistently left-justified; their length varies from one to a dozen syllables; they cluster in stanzalike units anywhere from one to six lines long that are separated by consistent spaces.

2. (transitive) To collect into clusters.
3. (transitive) To cover with clusters.

Translations

Anagrams

• culters, curlest, custrel, cutlers, relucts

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English cluster.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kl?s.t?r/
• Hyphenation: clus?ter
• Rhymes: -?st?r

Noun

cluster f or m or m (plural clusters, diminutive clustertje n)

1. cluster
2. (astronomy) star cluster

   Synonyms: sterrencluster, sterrenhoop, sterrenzwerm

Derived terms

• sterrencluster

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English cluster.

Noun

cluster m (plural clusters)

1. cluster

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English cluster.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?kl?s.te?/

Noun

cluster m (plural clusters)

1. (music) cluster (chord of three or more notes)
2. (computing) cluster (group of computers working concurrently)

Spanish

Noun

cluster m (plural clusters or cluster)

1. Alternative spelling of clúster

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /h??d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /h?d/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d
• Homophone: heard

Etymology 1

From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord (“herd, flock; keeping, care, custody”), from Proto-Germanic *herd? (“herd”), from Proto-Indo-European *?erd?- (“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe (“nest”) and Serbo-Croatian krdo.

Noun

herd (plural herds)

1. A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper. [from 11th c.]
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,

     The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.

2. Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company. [from 13th c.]
   • 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma, National Geographic (March 2007), 47,

     Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.

3. (now usually derogatory) A crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative: a rabble. [from 15th c.]
   • 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk, 8 June 1833

     You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.

Derived terms

• herd immunity
• herd instinct

Translations

Verb

herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

1. (intransitive) To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.

   Sheep herd on many hills.
2. (transitive) To unite or associate in a herd
3. (transitive) To manage, care for or guard a herd

4. (intransitive) To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.

   • I’ll herd among his friends, and seem
     One of the number.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hird?, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

Noun

herd (plural herds)

1. (now rare) Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.
   • 2000, Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury 2002, page 38:

     Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

1. (intransitive, Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
2. (transitive) To form or put into a herd.
3. (transitive) To move or drive a herd.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns
• drove
• gather
• muster
• round up
• ride herd on

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

herd

1. imperative of herde

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *herþ.

Noun

herd m

1. hearth

Descendants

• Middle High German: hert
  • German: Herd
  • Luxembourgish: Häerd