WordofTheDay.US

Added 9 October 2026

bunch

/bʌntʃ/ noun

Categories: SocietyUncommon Words

In Latin: racēmus Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about bunch at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
    a bunch of grapes
  2. The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
  3. An informal body of friends.
    He still hangs out with the same bunch.

verb

  1. To gather into a bunch.
  2. To gather fabric into folds.
  3. To form a bunch.

Origin

From Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkō, *bunkô, *bungǭ (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ-, *bʰénǵʰus (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite 𒉺𒀭𒆪𒍑 (/⁠pankuš⁠/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búožė (“knob”), Ancient Greek παχύς (pakhús, “thick”), Sanskrit बहु (bahú, “thick; much”)).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Related Words: clustercaboodlecrewlotcrowdbundlegangclumpmasspiece

Back to today's word