[kluhs-ter] 
| 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 globular cluster, open cluster, stellar association. |
| 6. | to gather into a cluster or clusters. |
| 7. | to furnish or cover with clusters. |
| 8. | to form a cluster or clusters: The people clustered around to watch. |
| clus·ter (klŭs'tər) n.
v. intr. To gather or grow into bunches. v. tr. To cause to grow or form into bunches. [Middle English, from Old English clyster.] |
cluster
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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)
cluster
Atoms and molecules are the smallest forms of matter typically encountered under normal conditions and are in that sense the basic building blocks of the material world. There are phenomena, such as lightning and electric discharges of other kinds, that allow free electrons to be observed, but these are exceptional occurrences. It is of course in its gaseous state that matter is encountered at its atomic or molecular level; in gases each molecule is an independent entity, only occasionally and briefly colliding with another molecule or with a confining wall.
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