clustered
adj.growing or gathered together in a small, tight group. You use this to describe things that are very close to each other in one spot.
adj.positioned or occurring in a close group or bunch. Often used to describe data points, physical objects, or people gathered in a specific area.
“The small houses are clustered together on the hillside.”
“The researchers noticed that the cases of the virus were clustered in just three specific neighborhoods.”
“The telescope revealed a sky filled with clustered galaxies, each containing billions of stars held together by their mutual gravitational pull.”
Often used with the adverb 'together' or followed by the preposition 'around'.
“Many are clustered around London and the south of England – areas which are officially in drought at the moment.”
“At the same time, studies of the cosmic microwave background have long suggested that matter could be more tightly clustered across the largest scales of the Universe than expected.”