Bloc Meaning
/blɒk/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA group of voters or politicians who share common goals.
nounA group of countries acting together for political or economic goals, an alliance.
Sentence Examples
Those agenda items were taken up en bloc for discussion.
The Latino voting bloc in the US is increasingly a force to be reckoned with.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The trade ____ of nations agreed to lower tariffs among themselves.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The several countries formed a trade ____ to help their economies city.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 2020 May 11, Geoffrey Skelley, Nathaniel Rakich, “Two Special Elections On Tuesday Could Hint At Another Blue Wave In 2020”, in FiveThirtyEight, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2020:
"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."
— 2025 July 24, Ned Temko, “In Japan, too, voters want their country to be ‘great again’”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 27 Jul 2025:
"Like the iPod and MySpace, the BRICS bloc is a product of the benign optimism of the 2000s."
— 2023 August 17, “The BRICS bloc is riven with tensions”, in The Economist, →ISSN, archived from the original on 17 Aug 2023:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The trade ____ of nations agreed to lower tariffs among themselves.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The several countries formed a trade ____ to help their economies city.