bloc

[ blok ]

/ blɒk /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bloc ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a group of persons, businesses, etc., united for a particular purpose.

a group of legislators, usually of both major political parties, who vote together for some particular interest: the farm bloc.

a group of nations that share common interests and usually act in concert in international affairs: the Soviet bloc.

Nearby words

blm, bloat, bloated, bloater, blob, bloc, bloc québécois, bloc-vote, bloch, bloch-sulzberger syndrome, block

Origin of bloc

From French, dating back to 1900–05; see origin at block

SYNONYMS FOR bloc

coalition.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bloc ON THESAURUS.COM

Can be confused

bloc block

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bloc

Two years later, he had released all Soviet dissidents from prison and was beginning to loosen the reins on Soviet bloc countries.
How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Radicalized Putin|Masha Gessen|November 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Bloc voting for allies, and totally blanking your political foes, became the norm.
Why Russia Hates The Bearded Lady: The Hairy Politics of Eurovision|Tim Teeman|May 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.
Exclusive: Kerry Warns Israel Could Become ‘An Apartheid State’|Josh Rogin|April 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But did The Hague just witness the emergence of a new bloc to bloc rivalry, triggered by events in the Ukraine?
The West Can Ally Against Russia But It Needs Global Cooperation|Bruce Jones|March 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST

In 1945, the place housed captured Nazis but by 1948 most of its prisoners were Soviet bloc spies.
What Cold War CIA Interrogators Learned from the Nazis|Annie Jacobsen|February 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The export to the Soviet bloc of many other items is subject to limitations as to quantities permitted to be shipped.
East-West Trade Trends|Harold E. Stassen
The French Socialists were returned with important majorities, and the Bloc found itself stronger than ever before.
The War Upon Religion|Rev. Francis A. Cunningham
Instead, the Sino-Soviet bloc had again shifted the world's attention to Africa.
Hail to the Chief|Gordon Randall Garrett
Only $98 of the total went to Communist China, all the rest to the European bloc.
East-West Trade Trends|Harold E. Stassen
But the whole are really a bloc, the continental sense of which is rather different from our "block."
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1|George Saintsbury

British Dictionary definitions for bloc

bloc

/ (blɒk) /

noun

a group of people or countries combined by a common interest or aimthe Soviet bloc

Word Origin for bloc

C20: from French: block

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012