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50 Quirky Collective Nouns For Advanced English Vocab Enthusiasts

Collective nouns may seem quirky ways to describe groups, but 500 years ago, they would have been your passport to the most culturally sophisticated tables of the society. While some have achieved widespread popularity and acceptance, like a “flight of stairs,” “a board of trustees,” and a “school of fish”, others, like a “murder of crows,” are not very commonly used in recent times.

Check out these 50 weird and interesting collective nouns that you can use to surprise your English-speaking audience, even native ones & don’t forget to show off your English vocab skills too!

50-Quirky-Collective-Nouns
  1.  Abominable Sight of Monks
  2.  Band of Men
  3.  Baptism of Fire
  4.  Business of Ferrets
  5.  Charm of Finches
  6.  Clowder, Cluster, or Clutter of Cats
  7.  College of Cardinals
  8.  Damning of Jurors
  9.  Doctrine of Doctors
  10.  Dule of Doves
  11.  Fighting of Beggars
  12.  Fusillade of Bullets
  13.  Gam of Whales
  14.  Gaggle of Women
  15.  Gaggle of Gossips
  16.  Hastiness of Cooks
  17.  Herd of Harlots
  18.  Hand of Bananas
  19.  Hill of Beans
  20.  Host of Angels
  21.  Impatience of Wives
  22.  Knot of Toads
  23.  Kindle of Kittens
  24.  Labor of Moles
  25.  Mustering of Storks
  26.  Murder of Crows
  27.  Mute of Hounds
  28.  Neverthriving of Jugglers
  29.  Ostentation of Peacocks
  30.  Poverty of Pipers
  31.  Parliament of Owls
  32.  Paddling of Ducks (when on water)
  33.  Pass of Asses
  34.  Quiver of Arrows
  35.  Rascal of Boys
  36.  Shrewdness of Apes
  37.  Smack of Jellyfish
  38.  Sloth, or Sleuth of Bears
  39.  String of Ponies
  40.  Shock of Corn
  41.  Superfluity of Nuns
  42.  Sentence of Judges
  43.  Tabernacle of Bakers
  44.  Trip of Goats
  45.  Team of Ducks (when flying)
  46.  Tissue of Lies
  47.  Unkindness of Ravens
  48.  Untruth of Summoners
  49.  Worship of Writers
  50.  Wedge of Swans (when flying)

Phew! That was an unusual & a quirky lot. Wasn’t it? Well, if anyone asks about the authenticity of the words, tell them, as James Lipton had mentioned in his An Exaltation of Larks, the terms above “are authentic and authoritative. They were used, they were correct, and they are useful, correct—and available—today.”

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