supergroup

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *úp

Proto-Indo-European *-er

Proto-Indo-European *upér

Proto-Italic *super

Latin super

Latin super-lbor.

English super-

Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der.

Proto-Germanic *kruppaz

Frankish *kruppbor.

Vulgar Latin *cruppus

Italian gruppobor.

French groupebor.

▲

Italian gruppobor.

English group

English supergroup

From super- + group.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

supergroup (plural supergroups)

1. Any group composed of other groups.

   Hypernyms: group, set, grouping

   Coordinate terms: subgroup, subset

   Near-synonyms: superset (often synonymous), superclass, supercategory

   1. (mathematics) The group to which a subgroup belongs.
      • 2011, Alexander Kulikov, Nikolay Vereshchagin, editors, Computer Science – Theory and Applications […] , Springer, →ISBN, page 237:

        Formally, a supergroup is a more general notion than group. We illustrate the difference between the two notions by a simple example.

   2. (music) A group of musicians, each a star (especially, a superstar) of another band (especially in rock music).
      • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 365:

        In 1974, David Geffen, Asylum's main man, applied his negotiating abilities to creating a country-rock supergroup along the lines of Crosby, Stills & Nash.

      • [2017, Norman Abjorensen, Historical Dictionary of Popular Music, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 487:

        A supergroup is a rock and pop music term for a group whose members are already successful and well known, either as solo performers or part of other groups. It was first applied in 1968, to Cream, whose three members had already achieved prominence, […]]

   3. (physics) A generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry.
   4. (telecommunications) In the L-carrier system, a multiplexed group of channel groups.
   5. (geology) A sequence of groups of formations that compose a coherent unit.

Translations

group of star musicians, from other bands

• Dutch: supergroep (nl) m or f