clusterful

English

Etymology 1

cluster +‎ -ful

Noun

clusterful (plural clusterfuls or clustersful)

1. A quantity that forms a cluster.
   • 2001, Michael A. Caloyannides, Computer Forensics and Privacy, page 34:

     Windows will never write less than one clusterful of data onto a cluster; if it only needs to write half of it, it will mark the end of where that file ends (the "end of file" mark) and fill the rest of the cluster with whatever data happens to be floating about in portions of the computer's electronic memory [a.k.a. random access memory (RAM)].

   • 2008, Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas: A Culture Novel:

     To match it you would need a thousand such worlds; systems of them, a clusterful of information-packed globes . . . and that vast capacity was physically contained within a space smaller than a single one of those tiny rooms, inside the Mind. . . .

   • 2015, Annabel Hawkins, This Must be the Place, →ISBN:

     We flew — fur-jacketed moths in the night. Clusterfuls of us on borrowed boards and in temporary clothes.

Etymology 2

cluster +‎ -ful

Adjective

clusterful (comparative more clusterful, superlative most clusterful)

1. (linguistics) Having phonological rules that allow consonant clusters.
   • 1992, Pamela A. Downing, Susan D. Lima, Michael Noonan, The Linguistics of Literacy, page 97:

     We know from Linear B how awkward a syllabary is for a clusterful language — consonants are omitted, or otiose vowels intrude in the spelling -—— so a segmental orthography would be quite advantageous.

   • 2008, Derek Bickerton, Bastard Tongues:

     Sranan, perhaps because it was spoken on the plantations alongside Dutch, a pretty clusterful language, grew more tolerant of clusters and dropped the first epenthetic vowel.