A Profusion of Collective Nouns
There seems to be a collective noun for just about any group—like “a pride of lions,” “a ream of paper,” “a stand of trees,” or “a stack of bibles.” Some are oddly named and imply no quantity—like “a murder of crows.” So wouldn’t it be more logical to call such a group “a crowd of crows?”
At any rate, here, from Jim Wegryn’s “A Barrelful of Words,” are some other collective nouns that would make sense:A barrel of guns
***
A battery of flashlights
***
A body of morticians
***
A bowl of football games
***
A box of prize fighters
***
A bundle of babies
***
A carload of clowns
***
A case of lawyers
***
A cast of fishermen
***
A closet of acrophobics
***
A collection of churches
***
A company of chaperones
***
A complex of psychoanalysts
***
A crowd of crows
***
A cup of trophies
***
A dash of sprinters
***
A deck of cardinals
***
A deck of sailors
***
A division of mathematicians
***
A drove of old cars
***
A fleet of runners
***
A flush of toilets
***
A glut of doughnuts
***
A gross of pornographers
***
A hamper of helpers
***
A handful of palmists
******
A hill of beans
***
A host of emcees
***
A jar of Quakers
***
A kettle of drums
***
A list of ships
***
A litter of slobs
***
A loaf of bums
***
A lot of car dealers
***
A mass of priests
***
A measure of rulers
***
A mess of army cooks
***
A mound of baseball pitchers
***
A number of counts
***
A pack of suitcases
***
A pan of sightseers
***
A party of fraternity men
***
A peck of chickens
***
A pile of carpets
***
A pinch of pickpockets
***
A plethora of pedantries
***
A plot of conspirators
***
A pot of poker players
***
A pound of hammers
***
A purse of kisses
***
A quota of sayings
***
A raft of swimmers
***
A range of stoves
***
A rash of dermatologists
***
A ream of bureaucrats
***
A round of wheels
***
A run of cowards
***
A run of noses
***
A rush of fraternity men
***
A sack of quarterbacks
***
A sack of vandals
***
A school of teachers
***
A score of musicians
***
A sea of bishops
***
A shower of meteorologists
***
A slew of murderers
***
A slug of fists
***
A spray of cats
***
A stack of librarians
***
A string of violins
***
A sweep of brooms
***
A trunk of elephants
***
A volume of speakers
***
A wealth of millionaires
—From Jim Wegryn’s “A Barrelful of Words”
