cluster

n. 1. a fireworks signal in which a group of stars burns at the same time.

2. a group of bombs released together. A bomb cluster usually consists of fragmentation or incendiary bombs.

3. two or more parachutes for dropping light or heavy loads.

4. in land-mine warfare, a component of a pattern-laid minefield. It may be antitank, antipersonnel, or mixed. It consists of one to five mines and no more than one antitank mine.

4. two or more engines coupled together so as to function as one power unit.

6. in naval-mine warfare, a number of mines (of like or mixed types) laid in close proximity to each other as a pattern or coherent unit.

7. in minehunting, a group of minelike contacts.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

An integrated grouping of towns and their rural catchments, which can be cultivated to promote growth, and reduce poverty, in backward regions that are not too remote from existing economic centres. Recently, attention has been given—for example, by the European Union—to the role of clusters in local economic development, which can increase the competitiveness of the regional economy through effective common institutions, collective action and mutual rivalry. However, the emergence of locally embedded business systems is often stalled by the fact that industries producing for world markets tend to be dominated by external buyers and retailers.

1. Vertical support, or cantoned pier (pilier cantonné), consisting of a cluster of columns or shafts joined together, inosculated, or engaged with a central pier.

2. Annulated, clustered, or compound pier with colonnettes or shafts attached to it and each other by means of bands of a shaft, as distinct (according to some sources) from a bundle pier. Other sources claim the shafts can be attached or detached, or appear as demi- or engaged shafts against a pier or core: however, the problem arises from the fact that on the Continent the minor shafts were almost always engaged with the central mass, but in English First Pointed examples they were detached, and often of dark Purbeck marble, tied together at intervals by bands of a shaft.