- group
- group n Group, cluster, bunch, parcel, lot mean a collection or assemblage of persons or of things.Group implies some unifying relationship, however tenuous (as a similarity of activity, of purpose, or of nature), and ordinarily a degree of physical closeness{
a group waiting for the bus
}{the group of workers unloading the cargo
}{a group of partisans
}{a group of soldiers in the picture
}{man can only make progress in cooperative groups— Bagehot
}{a group of statues in the museum
}{a group of islands
}{an ethnic group
}Cluster basically refers to a group of things (as fruits or flowers) growing closely together{a cluster of grapes
}{climbing roses producing clusters of flowers
}In extended use the term may be applied to persons or things that form distinguishable groups and especially smaller groups within larger masses{the people at the reception gathered in clusters
}{clusters of small yachts in the har- bor
}{cataloging the clusters of stars
}{Clem Henry's house was in a cluster of Negro cabins below Arch's big house— Caldwell
}Bunch (see also BUNDLE) often replaces cluster in referring to natural groups of certain edible fruits (as grapes or bananas). In its extended uses it implies a natural or homogeneous association of like persons or things and carries a weaker implication of a common origin or point of growth than cluster usually does{Clara is by far the best swimmer of the bunch
}{a bunch of keys
}{girls with bunches of streamers which they flicked in your face as you passed— Bennett
}{a piece about a bunch of hillbillies in the South, each one almost precisely as crazy and lovable as the next— Gibbs
}Parcel and lot refer to a separate or detached collection of persons or things.Parcel in this sense (see also PART, BUNDLE) usually carries some implication of disapproval of the thing so grouped{a parcel of lies
}{became merely a . . . parcel of tricks— Binyon
}{lessons to a parcel of young girls thumping out scales with their thick fingers— Galsworthy
}{a parcel of giddy young kids— Mark Twain
}Lot applies to persons or things that are associated or should for one reason or another be thought of or treated as a whole{the auctioneer sold the books in lots
}{the men in this battalion are an interesting lot
}{the future generation of scientists will be a sorry lot if the best teachers leave the academic circles— Rabi
}{till you have read a good lot of the Fathers— Keble
}{I could ignore the fuzzy doings on the screen, knowing that if you have slept through one you've slept through the lot— Malcolm
}When the plural is used, the idea of grouping is lost or obscured and the implication of numbers or quantity increases{I have lots of time for that
}{there were lots and lots of children there
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
