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!
- Abominable Sight of Monks
- Band of Men
- Baptism of Fire
- Business of Ferrets
- Charm of Finches
- Clowder, Cluster, or Clutter of Cats
- College of Cardinals
- Damning of Jurors
- Doctrine of Doctors
- Dule of Doves
- Fighting of Beggars
- Fusillade of Bullets
- Gam of Whales
- Gaggle of Women
- Gaggle of Gossips
- Hastiness of Cooks
- Herd of Harlots
- Hand of Bananas
- Hill of Beans
- Host of Angels
- Impatience of Wives
- Knot of Toads
- Kindle of Kittens
- Labor of Moles
- Mustering of Storks
- Murder of Crows
- Mute of Hounds
- Neverthriving of Jugglers
- Ostentation of Peacocks
- Poverty of Pipers
- Parliament of Owls
- Paddling of Ducks (when on water)
- Pass of Asses
- Quiver of Arrows
- Rascal of Boys
- Shrewdness of Apes
- Smack of Jellyfish
- Sloth, or Sleuth of Bears
- String of Ponies
- Shock of Corn
- Superfluity of Nuns
- Sentence of Judges
- Tabernacle of Bakers
- Trip of Goats
- Team of Ducks (when flying)
- Tissue of Lies
- Unkindness of Ravens
- Untruth of Summoners
- Worship of Writers
- 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.”
