23 Aug 2018 10:37 pm
In my previous post, Odd Plurals, I spoke briefly about needing to find out the plural of octopus (if you’re wondering, it’s octopuses – not octopi) which led to me looking at plurals of other words. Today, I needed to find a collective noun for a group of octopuses and after searching for what felt like aeons, I couldn’t find one. However, I did come across some other collective nouns that I thought were rather interesting. So here’s ten of them.
‘Graze’ is the collective noun for a group of racoons. A graze of racoons.
‘Mischief’ is the name for a group of rats. A mischief of rats.
‘Alley‘ is the collective noun for a group of clowns. An alley of clowns.
‘Tizzy’ is the collective term for a group of fairies. A tizzy of fairies.
‘Conflagration’ is the term for a group of arsonists. A conflagration of arsonists.
‘Glitter’ is the collective name for a group of generals. A glitter of generals.
‘Glaring’ or ‘Clowder’ is used when you’re referring to a group of cats. A glaring/clowder of cats.
Sticking with cats, ‘kindle’ is the collective noun for a group of kittens. A kindle of kittens.
‘Blessing’ is the collective term for a group of unicorns. A blessing of unicorns.
‘Unkindness’ is the word you’d use when referring to a group of ravens. An unkindness of ravens.
That was ten interesting collective nouns! I hope you found it as interesting as I did. Also, if anybody does come across a name for a group of octopuses, could you let me know?
As always, thanks very much for reading!
Until next time,
George
© 2018 GLT
Posted by georgelthomas
Categories: Interesting Collective Nouns
Tags: collective, English, George, group, interesting, noun, nouns, words, write, Writer, writing
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My favourites are a Murder of Crows, A memory of elephants and a Charm of Hummingbirds.
Apparently, there isn’t an accepted collective noun for a group of octopuses (or Octopodes to be more correct) because they don’t tend to hang around in groups.
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By talesfromthemindofkristian on 11 Sep 2018 at 4:55 pm
Yeah I like ‘murder of crows’ and that’s the first time I’ve seen ‘a memory of elephants’ but I love that too, it feels very appropriate 😀
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By georgelthomas on 11 Sep 2018 at 5:12 pm
I wish i had the memory of an elephant,
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By talesfromthemindofkristian on 11 Sep 2018 at 5:15 pm
Haha, yeah same here! 😁
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By cimmadison on 12 Sep 2024 at 5:21 pm
Yes that’s a good one!
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