n.
- An assemblage of persons or objects gathered or located together; an aggregation: a group of dinner guests; a group of buildings near the road.
- Two or more figures that make up a unit or design, as in sculpture.
- A number of individuals or things considered together because of similarities: a small group of supporters across the country.
- Linguistics. A category of related languages that is less inclusive than a family.
- A military unit consisting of two or more battalions and a headquarters.
- A unit of two or more squadrons in the U.S. Air Force, smaller than a wing.
- A class or collection of related objects or entities, as:
- Two or more atoms behaving or regarded as behaving as a single chemical unit.
- A column in the periodic table of the elements.
- A stratigraphic unit, especially a unit consisting of two or more formations deposited during a single geologic era.
- Mathematics. A set with a binary associative operation such that the operation admits an identity element and each element of the set has an inverse element for the operation.
Of, relating to, constituting, or being a member of a group: a group discussion; a group effort.
v., grouped, group·ing, groups. v.tr.
To place or arrange in a group: grouped the children according to height.
v.intr.
To belong to or form a group: The soldiers began to group on the hillside.
[French groupe, from Italian gruppo, probably of Germanic origin.]
USAGE NOTE Group as a collective noun can be followed by a singular or plural verb. It takes a singular verb when the persons or things that make up the group are considered collectively: The dance group is ready for rehearsal. Group takes a plural verb when the persons or things that constitute it are considered individually: The group were divided in their sympathies. See Usage Notes at collective noun.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
