10 Unusual Collective Nouns

Collective Nouns Infographic

Do you find yourself checking the thesaurus often lately? I don’t know about you, but I do love checking for new words to use regularly. This is especially true for when I find myself using the same words too much. Sometimes, I am not even aware of that fact, but the thesaurus does help! Of course, I still believe that nothing beats reading voraciously when it comes to vocabulary expansion.

I found this infographic that presents 10 supposedly unusual collective nouns, which some of you might find interesting. To be honest, I don’t really think that the collective nouns in the infographic are all that unusual. However, information of this kind is always welcome – if not for its novel nature, it can always serve as a refresher.

So what are these 10 collection nouns?

  1. Stand
  2. Clump
  3. Brood
  4. Bevy
  5. Host
  6. Swarm
  7. Pride
  8. Bed
  9. School
  10. Band

The definitions and examples are seen in the infographic.
Collective Nouns Infographic

So tell me, do you find these collective nouns unusual at all? Do you use them in your work regularly?

On another note, I have a more fun and alternative way for you to discover new words. If you have an iPhone (or iPod Touch or iPad), and you like playing games in your free time, I suggest that you check out W.E.L.D.E.R. – if you are not playing it already. This word game is reminiscent of other puzzle/word games out there, but it can be rather difficult. More than the enjoyably challenging experience, what I like about this game is that you get to discover a whole lot of new words. Why don’t you give it a try?


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2 responses
  1. To the Nth Avatar

    I’m with you in that I don’t find the words on this list particularly unusual. I see them frequently while reading, and I have employed every word on the list at one time or another. “Murder,” as in “a murder of crows,” is a far more interesting collective noun, I believe. 😉

  2. Van Avatar

    Once in elementary school we had an assignment to list as many collective nouns as we could find. I loved that one. Like the previous commenter, I find “a murder of crows” is one of the first that comes to mind. I like how this infographic suggests wider usage of these terms, for instance a bevy in its strictest sense is used to describe a group of quail, but why not broaden it? This page lists some more interesting synonyms for flock: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flock

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