Etymology: French groupe, from Italian gruppo, by-form of groppo knot, tangle, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German kropf craw — more at crop
Date: 1686
1: two or more figures forming a complete unit in a composition 2 a: a number of individuals assembled together or having some unifying relationship b: an assemblage of objects regarded as a unit c (1): a military unit consisting of a headquarters and attached battalions (2): a unit of the United States Air Force higher than a squadron and lower than a wing 3 a: an assemblage of related organisms —often used to avoid taxonomic connotations when the kind or degree of relationship is not clearly defined b (1): two or more atoms joined together or sometimes a single atom forming part of a molecule; especially:functional group<a methyl group>(2): an assemblage of elements forming one of the vertical columns of the periodic table c: a stratigraphic division comprising rocks deposited during an era 4: a mathematical set that is closed under a binary associative operation, contains an identity element, and has an inverse for every element
