Collective Nouns

A tower of giraffes. A murder of crows. A shiver of sharks.

Hope you’ve had a great week. Here’s one that I’ve had on my list for over a year: collective nouns.

Probably should have included a destruction of wildcats, too. Prints of this

A collective noun is a word used to describe a group of individuals or things — most commonly groups of animals. The best capture character and imagination in a single word.

Everyone loves a good collective noun. So here’s a small list of collective nouns with some of my favourites.

Animal Collective Nouns

Some animal crackers:

1. A tower of giraffes

2. A crash of rhinos

3. A galaxy of starfish

4. A shiver of sharks

5. A destruction of wildcats

6. A bask of crocodiles

7. A pride of lions

8. A bloat of hippopotamus

9. A nest of vipers

10. A confusion of wildebeests

11. A shrewdness of apes

12. A dazzle (or zeal) of zebra

13. A labour of moles

14. A prickle of porcupines

15. An embarrassment of pandas

16. A skulk of foxes

17. A leap of leopards

We all know a gaggle of geese, thanks to the great alliteration (and that we see a lot of geese), but these are lovely too:

1. A parliament of owls

2. A murmuration of starlings

3. A charm of goldfinches

4. A pandemonium of parrots

5. An ostentation of peacocks

6. An exaltation of larks

7. A flamboyance of flamingos

8. A murder of crows

9. A deceit of lapwings (poor lapwings)

10. An exaltation of larks

11. A raft of coots

Collective nouns for other things

Are collective nouns for other things, not just animals? Yes. We say a bunch of bananas, a quiver of arrows, a bouquet of flowers, a fleet of ships, or a squadron of aircraft.

Collective nouns for professions or groups of people are some of the more fun. Take, for example:

• a pack of thieves

• a coven of witches

• a haggle of vendors

• a sentence of judges

• a flock of tourists

• a wince of dentists

• an absence of professors

• or a torment of personal trainers

Collective nouns are everywhere.

Where do collective nouns come from?

Many collective nouns still used today were first recorded in a 1486 book by an English noblewoman called The Book of St Albans, or The Book of Hawking, Hunting and Blasing of Arms. It includes an appendix in wonderful olde englishe with “The Compaẏnẏs of beestẏs and fowlẏs.” It meant that people out hunting could correctly identify their “Besynes of ferettis” (business of ferrets) and “Brace of grehoundis” (brace of greyhounds).

But English continues to evolve, and the older zeal of zebra may give way to a dazzle when enough people decide to use that one. As there appears to be no established authority, may the best collective noun win.

Wiktionary has a mighty list of collective nouns in case you ever wanted to discover a glitter of generals, an implausibility of gnus, or a helix of geneticists. I can’t vouch for their accuracy, though. If you know or find any others you particularly like, please share them with me in a reply or comment.

However, the best and most well-researched collection I’ve seen is from James Lipton’s An Exaltation of Larks.

What makes a great collective noun?

For me, the best collective nouns sum up, often with a touch of humour, poetry, and perhaps a wink, the most salient qualities of their nouns. It’s what makes a shiver of sharks, or a bask of crocodiles, so much more enjoyable than, say, a cloud of sharks, or a litter of crocodiles, or just a bunch of either of them.

Perhaps we need a collective noun for a group of sketches?

• A gallery of sketches

• An insight of sketches

• A clarity of sketches

• A spark of sketches

• A scribble of sketches

• A wonder of sketches

Favourites?

A clarity of sketches?

I had fun trying a children’s book-style drawing for this one. Prints and things here.

See some good collective nouns this week that I should add to my lists here? Let me know!

Jono

Related Ideas to Collective Nouns

Also see:

• Spoonerism

• Dialogue, monologue, halfalogue

• Days of the week

• Ordering adjectives

• Sea jelly, sea star

• Crazy English: fish - ghoti

• Word spectrum

• RAS Syndrome

• Advise vs advice

• NATO Phonetic alphabet

Learn more:

A short BBC video, The Strange World of Collective Nouns, gives a lovely overview of their origin and some fun examples. A pedant of Oxford commas? As Susie Dent says, “The only boring thing about collective nouns is their name.”

Update 10 Nov: I added a few more from suggestions and a link to the excellent book An Exaltation of Larks.