Rühm

Rühm is an Estonian noun meaning a group of people or things that share a common purpose, attribute, or activity. It is used for social or organizational units ranging from informal teams to formal committees, study groups, or performance ensembles. In everyday language, phrases such as tööalane rühm or õpilaste rühm illustrate its function as a collection formed for a specific task or activity.

In mathematics, rühm denotes the abstract concept of a group. A mathematical rühm is a set equipped with a binary operation that combines any two elements to form a third element within the set, and it satisfies the group axioms: closure, associativity, identity, and inverses. This use is common in Estonian mathematical writing and is analogous to the English term “group.” The mathematical sense is distinct from the more general social sense, though they share the same word.

Plural and usage notes: the plural form is rühmad. The word occurs in many compound expressions, such as uuringurühm (research group), klassirühm (class group), or tantsurühm (dance group). Rühm remains a versatile term in both everyday language and technical contexts, with its exact meaning clarified by context.