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
-
has been bunchingperfect progressive
Past
-
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:
Oh, and if you rent but you still want exposure to the real-estate market, you could always take that 20% down payment you were saving up and invest it in a bunch of residential REITs.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
We did a bunch of stuff with the full cast, and it was more to learn the accent than anything else.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
This left the company with a problem that a bunch of humans would have to solve: what to do with all that AI-generated math.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
To paraphrase the maxim falsely attributed to Lincoln, you can fool a whole bunch of the people for a hell of a long time, but you can’t fool all of them forever.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
“We were babysitting during the book club. It was a bunch of people from town. You should have come!”
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
"The way to encourage fandom is to create moments, so I'm happy the two teams coming over know how to score points - and score them in bunches," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 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
Throw in four bunches of baby bok choy and stir to coat them in flavored oil.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Several bunches of flowers were left at the scene on Sunday, following the death.
From BBC ● May 3, 2026
The hams and the venison hung in their paper wrappings, and all the bunches of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for medicine, gave the place a dusty-spicy smell.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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
Cassidy, Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow, and state treasurer John Fleming have been relatively bunched in the polling.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
And suddenly there’s traffic in their rear-view mirror, with four teams bunched no more than three points behind them in the Western Conference standings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2026
"I feel like it's always very bunched here," said Canada's Taylor.
From Barron's ● Jan. 18, 2026
A nylon shower curtain, scarlet, with a design of canary-yellow sharps, flats, and clefs on it, was bunched up at the foot of the tub, attached with plastic rings to an over-head chromium bar.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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
But what if the couple waited until January 2026 to pay their real-estate taxes and make their charitable donations, bunching $50,000 in deductions for those taxes and donations?
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2025
The glaze contracted without exposing much clay, bunching up into a kind of dense-packed low relief and a pattern that suggests entrails.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2023
Even Chubs looked at the car with a rare softness, his fingers bunching up the fabric of his pants.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
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.
