bunch
Americannoun
-
bunches
plural
verb (used with object)
-
bunches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bunched,
past participle, past
-
bunching
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
bunches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bunched,
past participle, past
-
bunching
present participle
-
to gather into a cluster; gather together.
-
(of fabric or clothing) to gather into folds (often followed byup ).
noun
-
a number of things growing, fastened, or grouped together
a bunch of grapes
a bunch of keys
-
a collection; group
a bunch of queries
-
informal a group or company
a bunch of boys
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archaic a protuberance
verb
Usage
What is a basic definition of bunch? A bunch is a group of things. Bunch can also specifically mean a group that is connected together. Used informally, a bunch is a group of people. As a verb, bunch means to gather into a group. A bunch is a collection or group of items gathered into one place. If you have a bunch of papers on your desk, for example, you have many papers on your desk.
- Used in a sentence: Angela was happy to see that there were a bunch of presents under the Christmas tree.
- Real-life examples: You might eat from a bunch of grapes and be left with just the stem. A maintenance person usually carries a bunch of keys on a ring.
- Used in a sentence: I bought a small bunch of bananas.
- Used in a sentence: A bunch of kids ran past us to watch the clown perform magic tricks.
- Used in a sentence: I bunched all of the wrapping paper into a ball and threw it in the trash.
Synonym Usage
See bundle.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bunchsimple
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bunchessimple
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have bunchedperfect
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has bunchedperfect
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am bunchingprogressive
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are bunchingprogressive
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is bunchingprogressive
-
have been bunchingperfect progressive
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has been bunchingperfect progressive
Past
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bunchedsimple
-
had bunchedperfect
-
was bunchingprogressive
-
were bunchingprogressive
-
had been bunchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bunch
1275–1325; Middle English bunche; of uncertain origin
Explanation
A group or cluster of something is a bunch. It could be a bunch of people or a bunch of grapes. If you pick a bunch of bananas, you might end up being followed by a bunch of monkeys. When you use the word bunch, you're generally talking about an approximate number of similar items, like a bunch of flowers or a bunch of cats or a bunch of your friends meeting for dinner. The verb bunch means "gather together," or "form into a bunch," the way you might bunch daisies together in a vase, or your socks might bunch down inside your boots.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
John McGinn bought a bunch of fouls; Oli McBurnie battled hard in what McGinn called a "thankless task"; there were some fleeting moments when the crowd got energised and hope, or perhaps delusion, took hold.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
He caught the bunch by surprise 20 miles from home and quickly opened up a gap.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
"Why? Because if you hurt a model, it's fine. If you hurt a 2,300-year-old ancient artifact, you'll have a bunch of archeologists ready to jump you. Not to mention me jump you!"
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
And then one day, when I had a bunch of almost-rotten bananas sitting on my kitchen counter, I threw them together and made a cake.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
The repercussion track was different every time, depending on how badly you’d screwed up, and really, as my mom liked to point out, it was just a bunch of guesswork.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
About 100 bunches of flowers have been left at the playground where he was last seen and more than £21,000 has been donated to a fundraiser to support his family.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Some stands sold small cartons of cherry tomatoes for $7, bunches of kale for $4 and a mixed-salad bag for $5.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
Step into your local supermarket, and you may find that those ordinarily humble broccoli bunches or cauliflower heads now carry higher price tags.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
“Some people never watch their movies, which is shocking to me. I’ve seen all of my movies bunches of times. I’ve watched ‘Thelma & Louise’ dozens of times.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
I ran and dumped the bunches in a pile on the bare ground outside the yard fence, then hurried to bring a live coal from the fireplace to start them burning.
From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson
An alternative Arctic route, the Northwest Passage that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via the Canadian Arctic, is less passable because it is dominated by narrow waterways where ice gets bunched up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
McNealy, the son of a Silicon Valley billionaire, sits alongside fellow American Alex Smalley atop a bunched leaderboard which continues to feature some surprising names near the summit.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
Cassidy, Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow, and state treasurer John Fleming have been relatively bunched in the polling.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
Bianco, fellow Republican Steve Hilton and a passel of Democratic hopefuls are bunched together in a contest that remains utterly wide open just weeks before voters start receiving their ballots in the mail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2026
His face was all bunched up like he was thinking the exact same thing, so I walked beside him and kept my mouth shut.
From "Miracle's Boys" by Jacqueline Woodson
In a loss to the Giants, the Dodgers scored their only run by bunching four walks in one hitless inning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
Even those who missed the boat on opening a DAF last year might find it useful for bunching deductions into one tax year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
In its assessment of the tax, the OBR said it expected the tax would begin to be reflected in the price of properties, with "price bunching to just below each band boundary".
From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2025
In other cases, the bunching strategy may work best for people who push up their charitable contributions and state and local tax payments into this year.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2025
She gripped the stone, digging into the cracks, Kaz’s gloves bunching around her damp fingers.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
