bloc

See also: Bloc and błoć

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French bloc (“group, block”), ultimately of Old Dutch origin, from Frankish or Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”). Doublet of block.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /blɒk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /blɑk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒk
• Homophone: block

Noun

Examples (group of countries)
the Eurozone the European Union Mercosur

bloc (plural blocs)

1. A group of voters or politicians who share common goals.
   • 2020 May 11, Geoffrey Skelley, Nathaniel Rakich, “Two Special Elections On Tuesday Could Hint At Another Blue Wave In 2020”, in FiveThirtyEight‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 June 2020:

     But a huge bloc of non-Hispanic white residents without bachelor’s degrees — 72 percent of the population age 25 or older — has turned the 7th District into Republican turf.

   • 2025 July 24, Ned Temko, “In Japan, too, voters want their country to be ‘great again’”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎^[2], archived from the original on 27 July 2025:

     How that impacts Asia’s most stable democracy will become clearer only in the weeks ahead. Sunday’s vote was a mid-term election for the less powerful, upper house of the legislature. And the Sanseito party, while surging, is still only the fourth-largest bloc in that chamber.

2. A group of countries acting together for political or economic goals, an alliance.

   military bloc

   trading bloc

   • 2023 August 17, “The BRICS bloc is riven with tensions”, in The Economist‎^[3], →ISSN, archived from the original on 17 August 2023:

     Like the iPod and MySpace, the BRICS bloc is a product of the benign optimism of the 2000s.

Derived terms

• antibloc
• Atlantic bloc
• black bloc
• bloc chip
• bloc party
• blocwide
• Eastern Bloc
• interbloc
• intrabloc
• nonbloc
• padded bloc
• Soviet Bloc
• superbloc
• trade bloc
• Western Bloc

Translations

group of voters or politicians

• Arabic: كُتْلَة (ar) f (kutla)
• Armenian: բլոկ (hy) (blok), դաշինք (hy) (dašinkʻ), խմբավորում (hy) (xmbavorum)
• Bulgarian: групировка (bg) f (grupirovka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 集團 / 集团 (zh) (jítuán)

• Finnish: liittouma (fi), blokki (fi), ryhmittymä (fi)
• German: Block (de) m
• Italian: blocco (it) m
• Kyrgyz: блок (ky) m (blok) бирикме (ky) m (birikme)
• Norwegian: blokk (no) m
• Polish: blok (pl) m
• Portuguese: bloco (pt) m
• Russian: блок (ru) m (blok), группиро́вка (ru) f (gruppiróvka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бло̏к m

  Latin: blȍk (sh) m

• Spanish: bloque (es)
• Swedish: block (sv) n
• Vietnamese: khối (vi)

group of countries

• Arabic: كُتْلَة (ar) f (kutla)
• Armenian: բլոկ (hy) (blok)
• Bulgarian: блок (bg) m (blok)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 聯合 / 联合 (zh) (liánhé)

• Finnish: liittouma (fi), blokki (fi)
• French: bloc (fr) m
• German: Block (de) m
• Greek: μπλοκ (el) n (blok)
• Hebrew: גוש (he) m (gush)
• Hindi: गुट (hi) m (guṭ)
• Italian: blocco (it) m
• Japanese: 連合 (ja) (れんごう, rengō)
• Korean: 연합 (ko) (yeonhap)
• Norwegian: blokk (no) m
• Persian: بلوک (fa) (blok)
• Polish: blok (pl) m
• Portuguese: bloco (pt) m
• Russian: блок (ru) m (blok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бло̏к m

  Latin: blȍk (sh) m

• Spanish: bloque (es) m
• Swedish: block (sv) n
• Vietnamese: khối (vi)

See also

• choc-a-bloc

Anagrams

• CLOB, LCBO

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ˈblo̞k]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central, Valencia, Northwestern) [ˈblɔk]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French bloc.

Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)

1. block
2. pad, notebook
3. bloc

Derived terms

• bloc de cases
• bloc de dibuix
• bloc de notes
• bloc de paper
• bloc de pisos
• bloc motor
• bloc-diagrama
• en bloc

Related terms

• monobloc

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English blog.

Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)

1. obsolete spelling of blog

Usage notes

• Recommend spelling (by TERMCAT) until 2013, when blog was accepted by the IEC.

Further reading

• “bloc”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “bloc”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “bloc” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “bloc”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)
• “bloc” in termcat, Centre de Terminologia, 2026.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French bloc (“a considerable piece of something heavy, block”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Frankish or Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɔk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)

1. a block (e.g., of wood)
2. a bloc, an alliance
3. a pad of paper
4. (computing) block (of memory, of code)

Derived terms

• à bloc
• bloc cardiaque
• bloc de béton
• bloc de départ
• bloc moteur
• bloc opératoire
• Bloc Québécois
• bloc-note
• commentaire en bloc
• en bloc
• faire bloc
• nier en bloc
• tout d'un bloc

Descendants

• → Asturian: bloque
• → Bulgarian: блок (blok)
• → Czech: bloc
• → English: bloc
• → Galician: bloque
• → Irish: bloc
• → Italian: bloc
• → Macedonian: блок (blok)
• → Norwegian: block
• → Persian: بلوک (blok)
• → Polish: blok
• → Portuguese: bloco
• → Romanian: bloc
• → Russian: блок (blok)
  • → Armenian: բլոկ (blok)
  • → Yakut: блок (blok)
• → Spanish: bloc, bloque
• → Turkish: blok
• → Welsh: bloc

Further reading

• “bloc”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from English block or from a Romance language.

Noun

bloc m (genitive singular bloic, nominative plural bloic)

1. block

Declension

Declension of bloc (first declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative bloc bloic vocative a bhloic a bhloca genitive bloic bloc dative bloc bloic forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an bloc na bloic genitive an bhloic na mbloc dative leis an mbloc don bhloc leis na bloic

Derived terms

• bloc árasán m (“block of flats”)
• bloc fir m (“stocky man”)
• bloc-chlár m (“blockboard”)
• blocadóir m (“block-maker”)
• blocáil (“block”, verb)
• blocán m (“small block; stocky person; blockhead; coal-fish”)
• blocdhéanmhas m (“block structure”)
• blocléaráid f (“block diagram”)
• bloclitir f (“block letter”)
• blocphriontáil f (“(act of) blockprinting”)
• craosbhloc m (“breech-block”)
• cróbhloc m (“deadeye”)
• mítéarbhloc m (“mitre-block”)
• próisbhloc m (“process-block”)
• sclóinbhloc m (“swivel block”)
• tacabhloc m (“pillow-block”)
• V-bhloc m (“V-block”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of bloc

radical	lenition	eclipsis
bloc	bhloc	mbloc

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “bloc”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “bloc”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French bloc, German Blockhaus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblok/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ok

Noun

bloc n (plural blocuri)

1. block (a big chunk of solid matter)

   Synonym: bucată

   bloc de gheață ― block of ice

2. a heap or an ensemble of objects of the same type that form a unity

   bloc de desen ― drawing block

3. apartment building

   Synonym: (rare) blochaus

4. (politics) bloc

   Synonym: alianță

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	bloc	blocul	blocuri	blocurile
genitive-dative	bloc	blocului	blocuri	blocurilor
vocative	blocule		blocurilor

Derived terms

• în bloc
• bloc de desen
• bloc motor
• bloc cardiac
• bloc operator

Further reading

• “bloc”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Frankishder.

Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-der.

Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥ǵʰ-no-

Proto-Germanic *bulkną

Proto-Germanic *blukną

Proto-Germanic *blukką

Proto-West Germanic *blokkder.

Old Dutch *blokder.

Middle Dutch blokder.

Old French bloc

Middle French bloc

French blocbor.

Spanish bloc

Borrowed from French bloc. Doublet of block and bloque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblok/ [ˈblok]
• Rhymes: -ok
• Syllabification: bloc

Noun

bloc m (plural blocs)

1. block of paper

   Alternative form: block

   Synonym: pad

2. engine block

   Alternative form: bloque

Further reading

• “bloc”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English block. Doublet of plocyn.

Noun

bloc m (plural blociau, diminutive blocyn)

1. block

Derived terms

• bloc fflatiau (“apartment block”)
• grant bloc (“block grant”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of bloc

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
bloc	floc	mloc	unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Griffiths, Bruce; Glyn Jones, Dafydd (1995), “block”, in Geiriadur yr Academi: The Welsh Academy English–Welsh Dictionary‎^[4], Cardiff: University of Wales Press, →ISBN
• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “bloc”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin