COLLECTIVE NOUNS

Subject Collective Noun Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

beavers

colony or family

alligators

congregation

bees

swarm, colony, erst, grist

antelope

herd

flock, fleet, flight, parcel, or pod

ants

army, colony. nest, swarm

birds

dissimulation

fanciful

apes

Shrewdness, troop

volary

in an aviary

herd, pace or passe asses drove driven in a group

bishops

bench

bison

herd

baboons

troop

bitterns

sedge or sege or siege

badgers

cete, colony

boars (male pigs)

herd or singular

barbels

shoal

boars (wild boars)

sounder

12 or more

bats

cloud or colony

boys

blush

bears

sleuth or sloth

buffalo

herd or gang

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

bullfinches

bellowing

cats (wild cats)

destruction

bullocks

drove

driven in a group

caterpillars

army

bustards

flock

cattle

herd or drove

butlers

draught

chickens

brood, clutch or peep

butterflies

flight or rabble

choughs

chattering or clattering

buzzards

wake

cobblers

drunkenship or drunkship

camels

caravan, flock or train

colts

rag or rake

capercaillie

tok

cormorants

gulp

capons

mews

cooks

hastiness

caribou

herd

coots

covert

cats

Clowder, cluster or clutter, glaring or pounce

coyotes

pack

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

cranes

herd or sedge or sege

flight

bask or float crocodiles float ducks

flock, badling, brace, plump, sord, sore or waddling

bunch, paddling or raft

on water

crows

murder skein, string or team in flight

curlews

herd dunlins herd, bunch, mob, parcel, rangale fling

deer

eagles

convocation

dogs

pack

eels

bed or swarm

dogfish

troop

elephants

herd

dolphins

pod, school or team

elk

gang

dotterel

trip

emus

mob

doves

dole or dule or piteousness

fanciful

ferrets

business

corruption over time of 'busyness'

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

busyness or fesnyng

gnats

cloud, horde, rabble or swarm

finches

charm or chirm

goats

flock, herd, tribe, trip or trippe

fish

school or shoal

gods

pantheon

flamingoes

stand

goldfinches

charm

flies

business, cloud or swarm

goosanders

dopping

foresters

stalk

gorillas

band or whoops

foxes

leash or skulk

goshawks

flight

frogs

army

grasshoppers

cloud or swarm

flock or gaggle

on land

grouse

covey or pack

geese

plump

flying close

guineafowl

rasp

skein, team or wedge

in flight

hares

down, drove, flick or husk

giraffes

herd, corps or tower

hawks

boil

two or more spiralling in

Subject

Collective Noun flight

Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

hyenas cast or lease ibex kettle flying in large numbers ibises harts herd iguanas hedgehogs array insects herons sedge or sege or siege jackdaws hermits observance jays hippopotamuses bloat jellyfish hogs parcel kangaroos team horses band, herd, stable, string, stud, harass or harrase larks hounds pack, cry, hunt, meet, mute, stable in harness lapwings

cackle

herd

colony

mess

flight, horde, plague, rabble or swarm

train or clattering

band, party or scold

fluther or smack

mob or troop

deceit or desert

bevy or exaltation

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

leopards

leap or lepe

moorhens

plump

lions

pride or sawt

moose

herd

mackerel

shoal

mosquitoes

scourge

magpies

charm, congregation, gulp or murder, tiding or tittering

mudhens

fleet

mules mallard brace, flush, puddling, sord, suit or sute nightingales mares stud nuns martens richesse or richness owls mice nest, mischief or trip oxen minnows shoal parrots moles company, labor or labour partridges monkeys barrel, cartload, tribe or troop peacocks

barren, pack, rake or span

watch

superfluity

parliament

drove, team or yoke

company or pandemonium

covey

muster, ostentation or pride

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

pelicans

pod

sandpipers

fling

pheasants

bouquet, head, nest, nide or nye

seals

herd, pod or rookery

pigs

drift or drove sheep

flock, down, herd, hurtle, meinie, mob, trip or parcel

pipers

poverty drift or drove when driven in a group

pigeons

kit

flying together sheldrake dopping

plovers

congregation, stand or wing snails escargatoire, rout or walk

quail

bevy, drift or covey snakes bed, den, knot, nest or pit

raccoons

gaze snipe walk, whisp or wisp

ravens

unkindness sparrows host, meinie or tribe

rhinoceroses

crash spiders cluster or clutter

rooks

building or parliament squirrels colony, dray or scurry

salmon

bind, draught or run

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

starlings

Chattering, clattering, cloud, congregation or murmuration

swine

doylt, drift or trip

teal stoats pack or trip tigers flight or mustering storks phalanx when migrating trout swallows flight or gulp turkeys bank on the ground turtles bevy, drift, eyrar, flight, game, herd, sownder, team or whiting swans lamentation fanciful vipers wedge in flight walruses flock or scream swifts scream weasels waterfowl turtle doves toads

spring

ambush or streak

knot or nest

hover

gang or rafter

bale, dole or nest

dole or dule or pitying

nest

herd or pod

bunch, knob or raft

colony or pack

Subject

Collective Noun

Notes

whales

gam, herd, mob or pod

wigeons

company or trip

bunch, plump or trip wildfowl knob fewer than 30

pack wolves rout or route when in movement

woodcocks

fall

woodpeckers

descent

wrens

herd

zebras

herd, cohort or zeal