The word skulk comes from a Scandinavian word and generally means to wait, lurk or move stealthily. Owls are associated with wisdom so a group of owls is called a ‘parliament’ (hmm not so sure about that one!)Ī group of foxes is called a ‘skulk’. A nest of squirrels is called a ‘dray’ but is a ‘scurry’ for a group of unrelated males. ![]() Other collective nouns for specific horse groups include rag/bachelor herd (colts), troop (military horses), stud (breeding horses), and a string (horses that belong to one person).Ī ‘congregation’ of alligators or crocodiles – I suppose you could liken that to a group of people (congregation) raptly watching a preacher, but in this case the preacher might be you, the target!Ī ‘pride’ of lions we have probably all heard of, perhaps because of their regal and stately quality, but I came across a ‘mob’ of emus, which also applies to kangaroos.Ī ‘troop’ of monkeys is quite common, and a group of armadillos is called a ‘roll’ (probably as they tend to roll up when they are threatened). ‘Herd’ is the commonly used name for a group of cattle, elephants or deer, but also horses. ![]() Another possible origin comes from people who view the ‘appearance of crows as an omen of death.’ Beginning with the notional interpretation, the idea conveyed by collective nouns, especially those denoting institutions or groups of humans formed for some official purposes, can be difficult to handle in terms of their verbal choice.No doubt you have heard of a ‘pack of wolves’ or a ‘flock of sheep’ – most people have – but there are some really weird ones out there that I stumbled on recently.Ī ‘Murder’ of crows is verging on the unusual, one theory being that crows often will come together and ‘decide the capital fate of another crow.’ (That doesn’t sound very neighbourly!). That said, the choice of verbs for collective nouns is often problematic given the mental image of being multiple and also due to the notional interpretation of their usages. The fourth category consists of nouns denoting institutions or groups of humans formed for some official purposes such as committee, council, team and army. Some of these nouns are stack, pile, heap and bunch. The third category comprises nouns denoting particular spatial configurations of multiple objects. The second category encompasses nouns denoting multitudes of humans or animals. This category has words such as collection, set, group, multitude and so on. The first category is the general “collection nouns”. The rest of this article will discuss the categories of collective nouns and the grammatical confusion characterising their usages.Ĭollective nouns are in different categories, with four of them identified below: At other times, the collective noun could be used alone with examples such as committee, choir, audience and congregation. Collective nouns are often expressed in phrasal forms such as “a bevy of ladies” and “an album of photographs”. Thus, a collective noun always describes a plurality of one kind or another. By implication, it is not possible to have just one lion in a pride, and a single flower does not make a bouquet. One is better off simply accepting and trying to remember the most common collective nouns than attempting to figure them out logically.Ĭollective nouns make it easy to conceive of people or things in a class or category. Like the letters of a language, collective nouns are mainly to be committed to heart. A collective noun is generally used to describe a group as a single entity. ![]() ![]() Collective nouns refer to entire groups of people, animals, or things that share similarities or relationships. Deploying collective nouns is a problematic aspect of English usage for many a second-language speaker.
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