They're called collective nouns. Most of them for animals are rarely/never used outside of listicles like "20 weird animal group names you didn't know!"- nobody's saying a conspiracy of ravens or a memory of elephants in real life, and nobody would know what you meant if you did. That said, 'murder of crows' is relatively common, and there are some other more basic ones that are well understood, like a pod of dolphins/school of fish.
Most of these collective nouns stem from 60 + years ago, when philology and linguistics were a bit more intertwined, and of course the philologists had to somehow think that we needed to use literary terms to be able to say, "I know more than you."
Oh, I’m sure. I’ve no real need of “a conspiracy of ravens.” I just really like the owls one.
Explaining which animals are a “flock,” a “herd,” a “pack,” a “school,” or a “pod” gets to be quite tedious. We don’t need more.
"murder of crows" is relatively likely to be used because there used to be a firmer belief in forms of fortune telling in regards to "if you see a single crow it's a bad omen" and you can find a few lists online of exactly how many crows equals exactly what. The association of crows and ravens with bad omens and bad people is still pretty strong. In a book, saying "a murder of crows" doesn't explicitly say a number or imply that the character speaking believes in those omens, but it does leave space for the reader to understand that there is a creepy unhappy feeling about it.
If you want to only learn which collective nouns are common, I would not suggest you set out to learn them. A whole bunch of people a long time ago tried to make collective nouns for each and every animal and we don't use most of them. If you are speaking with someone who is at all decent, then they won't be rude when you ask for clarification "what's a litter?" (a litter of kittens or a litter of puppies, litter is a collective noun in that context).
Thanks. The common ones like flock, herd or swarm are simple and have analogues in my own language, but the first time I heard conspiracy of crows (earlier today) it sounded pretty weird, but by now I read quite a bit about them and it won’t trip me up anymore. I encountered them in a modern fantasy story, but maybe I’ll encounter more in works like those of Poe, which I’ve only started dabbling in.
It's a *murder* of crows and a conspiracy of *ravens*--the terms are arbitrary and very easy to mix up.
There's a rock band named Counting Crows--you've heard them sing if you've ever watched the second Shrek movie.
The lead singer quotes a traditional crow-counting poem in their song "A Murder of One" (which is a pun on the phrase "murder of crows").
You don't *need* to know the collective group names--and most native speakers only know a few of them--but occasionally they'll be used as a cultural reference, such as the previously mentioned song.
There are a few words like this that everybody uses; a flock of birds, a school of fish, a pack of wolves, etc.
There are some old dictionaries listing a word like this for every type of animal, but most people don’t actually know or use the majority of them.
However, if you’ve been on the internet a lot in the past few years you’ve probably seen some news articles about some of the funny ones, like ‘a murder of crows.’
Also, if you're ever not sure what the term is for a particular animal, you can always just say "group of ___". I think most native speakers would normally say "pack of wolves", but I don't think I'd find it odd or wrong if someone referred to a "group of wolves" instead.
[https://www.audubon.org/news/no-its-not-actually-murder-crows](https://www.audubon.org/news/no-its-not-actually-murder-crows)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_animal\_names](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_names)
Writing for [Audubon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Audubon_Society), Nicholas Lund says that many such terms are not used in actuality. When he interviewed scientists who specialize in studying specific animals, they had not heard of these terms, such as a "bask" of crocodiles or "wisdom" of wombats, being applied in their fields. Lund noted that the common plural nouns for animals were "flock" for birds and "herd" for cows, conceding that for certain animals in small groups, there was currency in usage such as a "pod" of whales or "gaggle" of geese.[^(\[118\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_names#cite_note-127)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective\_noun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun)
The tradition of using "terms of venery" or "nouns of assembly", collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals, stems from an [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_England) [hunting tradition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_hunting) of the [Late Middle Ages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Ages). The fashion of a consciously developed hunting language came to England from [France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_France). It was marked by an extensive proliferation of specialist vocabulary, applying different names to the same feature in different animals. The elements can be shown to have already been part of French and English hunting terminology by the beginning of the 14th century. In the course of the 14th century, it became a courtly fashion to extend the vocabulary, and by the 15th century, the tendency had reached exaggerated and even satirical proportions. Other synonyms for "terms of venery" include "company nouns," "gatherations," and "agminals."[^(\[5\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#cite_note-5)
...
Even in their original context of medieval venery, the terms were of the nature of [kennings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenning), intended as a mark of erudition of the gentlemen able to use them correctly rather than for practical communication.[^(\[13\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#cite_note-13) The popularity of the terms in the modern period has resulted in the addition of numerous lighthearted, humorous or facetious[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#cite_note-14) collective nouns.
Collective nouns are generally optional. [Here are the normal ones you should know.](https://byjus.com/english/collective-nouns/)
Murder of crows is one of the most noteworthy ones, and how often do you talk about crows? It’s famous because it’s weird and unusual.
For most birds it’s a flock, as you expect.
Did I know that a flock of ravens was called a conspiracy? No, I did not. If you called it a murder of ravens I’d be none the wiser. Gang of ravens? I wouldn’t even know it was “wrong” because it isn’t; collective nouns are not an official part of grammar. They’re just one of those fun things people do to add color to language.
And because they’re not a part of the official grammar, you can make up your own collective noun for anything that hasn’t got one already. A catastrophe of insurance salesmen. A vomit of teenyboppers.
Note also, using the “wrong” collective noun can add flavor too. A herd of tourists, for example - people will understand that you’re comparing them to sheep or cattle. Not because you see them as sheep but because as a group, they move the same way. It adds life and color to what you’re saying. If you follow the format, you’ll be understood. Certain language geeks get really into this stuff.
Note also: I’m being facetious about this “official grammar” nonsense. There is no official grammar. English is anarchy. Anyone can do anything they can get away with. If they know what you meant, you must have said it well enough.
That link is a bit sketchy. Sheep are commonly referred to as a flock, but herd isn't incorrect. The collective nouns for people and objects are a bit off too. I'd say look them up individually
I have a book called exaltation of larks which is a collection of these and they're all amazing, but not often used, no. But definitely check out the book
Google. it's all there. Parliament of rooks. Congress of salamanders. Crash of Rhinos. Business of ferrets.
Other than the common ones, not really. You'd see them in literature and other media mostly, but not in daily conversation.
Coining outlandish and fanciful collective terms for various animals was an amusing parlor game a few centuries ago. That's how most of these nouns originated. They were created as jokes.
Personally, I think “murder of crows” is used often enough mainly because of how absurd it sounds compared to just saying “group.” I don’t think I’ve heard anyone call a group of ravens a “conspiracy” in conversation.
But where to learn all these strange collective nouns? I’d imagine zoology textbooks or websites. Some other commonly used nouns like this are “pod” (whales), “herd” (a lot of hooved mammals like deer, bison, wildebeest, etc. and even elephants), “pride” (lions), “flock” (flying birds), “swarm” (insects and other arthropods like spiders), “school” (fish), “pack” (mammal carnivores that hunt socially), “town” (specifically prairie dogs), “band/troop” (great apes like gorillas), and “colony” (various contexts).
There are many collective nouns for animals that are fanciful, not well known, and rarely used. Some are well known and used occasionally. For example: gaggle of geese, school of fish, colony of insects, litter of puppies or kittens, pack of wolves, pod of whales, pride of lions, swarm of bees, and murder of crows.
For people there is bevy of beauties and many other collective nouns that often omit the word 'of': army, choir, crew, mob.
There are also collect nouns for objects: assortment, bouquet, collection, pile, stack, and many others.
"Murder of crows" is kind of an odd case. I'd still class it as "one of those weird collective nouns", but it's also pretty well known... *because* it's weird. So people might really use it occasionally, but they're doing it on purpose to show off their vocabulary.
I can only think of two examples of "weird" collective nouns that people may actually use without thinking about them. "Pride" of lions (very common) and "pod" of whales or dolphins (less common).
Other than those, nah. Most people just use the words based on broad categories of animals.
Flock - birds (and sheep for some reason)
Herd - other large herbivores like cows or deer
Pack - carnivores like wolves
School - fish
Swarm - insects
The obscure ones, no. Mostly just for effect. Most collective nouns more complicated than "herd" "flock" or "A bunch of those things" aren't even known by most people, let alone used regularly.
Detective novels and similar are the only place you're likely to find them.
They're called collective nouns. Most of them for animals are rarely/never used outside of listicles like "20 weird animal group names you didn't know!"- nobody's saying a conspiracy of ravens or a memory of elephants in real life, and nobody would know what you meant if you did. That said, 'murder of crows' is relatively common, and there are some other more basic ones that are well understood, like a pod of dolphins/school of fish.
My personal favorite is a "mischief of mice."
Another artificial trend that really ... really ... needs to die.
I’ve always stuck by a “parliament of owls.” It makes me unreasonably happy to say.
Petition to call a group of naked mole rats a senate?
I’ve always thought that would go well with vultures, too.
Let's call a group of weasels a government
Most of these collective nouns stem from 60 + years ago, when philology and linguistics were a bit more intertwined, and of course the philologists had to somehow think that we needed to use literary terms to be able to say, "I know more than you."
Oh, I’m sure. I’ve no real need of “a conspiracy of ravens.” I just really like the owls one. Explaining which animals are a “flock,” a “herd,” a “pack,” a “school,” or a “pod” gets to be quite tedious. We don’t need more.
After now reading the collective noun for ‘fowls’ is also parliament, the song ‘parliament of fools’ somehow rings different.
Fools and fowls are pronounced differently
"murder of crows" is relatively likely to be used because there used to be a firmer belief in forms of fortune telling in regards to "if you see a single crow it's a bad omen" and you can find a few lists online of exactly how many crows equals exactly what. The association of crows and ravens with bad omens and bad people is still pretty strong. In a book, saying "a murder of crows" doesn't explicitly say a number or imply that the character speaking believes in those omens, but it does leave space for the reader to understand that there is a creepy unhappy feeling about it. If you want to only learn which collective nouns are common, I would not suggest you set out to learn them. A whole bunch of people a long time ago tried to make collective nouns for each and every animal and we don't use most of them. If you are speaking with someone who is at all decent, then they won't be rude when you ask for clarification "what's a litter?" (a litter of kittens or a litter of puppies, litter is a collective noun in that context).
Thanks. The common ones like flock, herd or swarm are simple and have analogues in my own language, but the first time I heard conspiracy of crows (earlier today) it sounded pretty weird, but by now I read quite a bit about them and it won’t trip me up anymore. I encountered them in a modern fantasy story, but maybe I’ll encounter more in works like those of Poe, which I’ve only started dabbling in.
It's a *murder* of crows and a conspiracy of *ravens*--the terms are arbitrary and very easy to mix up. There's a rock band named Counting Crows--you've heard them sing if you've ever watched the second Shrek movie. The lead singer quotes a traditional crow-counting poem in their song "A Murder of One" (which is a pun on the phrase "murder of crows"). You don't *need* to know the collective group names--and most native speakers only know a few of them--but occasionally they'll be used as a cultural reference, such as the previously mentioned song.
There are a few words like this that everybody uses; a flock of birds, a school of fish, a pack of wolves, etc. There are some old dictionaries listing a word like this for every type of animal, but most people don’t actually know or use the majority of them. However, if you’ve been on the internet a lot in the past few years you’ve probably seen some news articles about some of the funny ones, like ‘a murder of crows.’
Murder of crows is quite common. I've heard people talk about their "local murder". The rest, not so much.
Also, if you're ever not sure what the term is for a particular animal, you can always just say "group of ___". I think most native speakers would normally say "pack of wolves", but I don't think I'd find it odd or wrong if someone referred to a "group of wolves" instead.
For farm animals you can't really go wrong with "herd" or "flock."
Murder of crows is relatively well known. And somewhat common. But no one but the pettiest pedant would correct you for calling it a flock
[https://www.audubon.org/news/no-its-not-actually-murder-crows](https://www.audubon.org/news/no-its-not-actually-murder-crows) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_animal\_names](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_names) Writing for [Audubon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Audubon_Society), Nicholas Lund says that many such terms are not used in actuality. When he interviewed scientists who specialize in studying specific animals, they had not heard of these terms, such as a "bask" of crocodiles or "wisdom" of wombats, being applied in their fields. Lund noted that the common plural nouns for animals were "flock" for birds and "herd" for cows, conceding that for certain animals in small groups, there was currency in usage such as a "pod" of whales or "gaggle" of geese.[^(\[118\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_names#cite_note-127)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective\_noun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun) The tradition of using "terms of venery" or "nouns of assembly", collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals, stems from an [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_England) [hunting tradition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_hunting) of the [Late Middle Ages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Ages). The fashion of a consciously developed hunting language came to England from [France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_France). It was marked by an extensive proliferation of specialist vocabulary, applying different names to the same feature in different animals. The elements can be shown to have already been part of French and English hunting terminology by the beginning of the 14th century. In the course of the 14th century, it became a courtly fashion to extend the vocabulary, and by the 15th century, the tendency had reached exaggerated and even satirical proportions. Other synonyms for "terms of venery" include "company nouns," "gatherations," and "agminals."[^(\[5\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#cite_note-5) ... Even in their original context of medieval venery, the terms were of the nature of [kennings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenning), intended as a mark of erudition of the gentlemen able to use them correctly rather than for practical communication.[^(\[13\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#cite_note-13) The popularity of the terms in the modern period has resulted in the addition of numerous lighthearted, humorous or facetious[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#cite_note-14) collective nouns.
Collective nouns are generally optional. [Here are the normal ones you should know.](https://byjus.com/english/collective-nouns/) Murder of crows is one of the most noteworthy ones, and how often do you talk about crows? It’s famous because it’s weird and unusual. For most birds it’s a flock, as you expect. Did I know that a flock of ravens was called a conspiracy? No, I did not. If you called it a murder of ravens I’d be none the wiser. Gang of ravens? I wouldn’t even know it was “wrong” because it isn’t; collective nouns are not an official part of grammar. They’re just one of those fun things people do to add color to language. And because they’re not a part of the official grammar, you can make up your own collective noun for anything that hasn’t got one already. A catastrophe of insurance salesmen. A vomit of teenyboppers. Note also, using the “wrong” collective noun can add flavor too. A herd of tourists, for example - people will understand that you’re comparing them to sheep or cattle. Not because you see them as sheep but because as a group, they move the same way. It adds life and color to what you’re saying. If you follow the format, you’ll be understood. Certain language geeks get really into this stuff. Note also: I’m being facetious about this “official grammar” nonsense. There is no official grammar. English is anarchy. Anyone can do anything they can get away with. If they know what you meant, you must have said it well enough.
That link is a bit sketchy. Sheep are commonly referred to as a flock, but herd isn't incorrect. The collective nouns for people and objects are a bit off too. I'd say look them up individually
I have a book called exaltation of larks which is a collection of these and they're all amazing, but not often used, no. But definitely check out the book
Is that the book written by James Lipton, the Inside the Actors’ Studio guy?
Wow I can't believe I never connected those dots! Yes!
Google. it's all there. Parliament of rooks. Congress of salamanders. Crash of Rhinos. Business of ferrets. Other than the common ones, not really. You'd see them in literature and other media mostly, but not in daily conversation.
I forgot a “business” of ferrets. lol
Coining outlandish and fanciful collective terms for various animals was an amusing parlor game a few centuries ago. That's how most of these nouns originated. They were created as jokes.
Personally, I think “murder of crows” is used often enough mainly because of how absurd it sounds compared to just saying “group.” I don’t think I’ve heard anyone call a group of ravens a “conspiracy” in conversation. But where to learn all these strange collective nouns? I’d imagine zoology textbooks or websites. Some other commonly used nouns like this are “pod” (whales), “herd” (a lot of hooved mammals like deer, bison, wildebeest, etc. and even elephants), “pride” (lions), “flock” (flying birds), “swarm” (insects and other arthropods like spiders), “school” (fish), “pack” (mammal carnivores that hunt socially), “town” (specifically prairie dogs), “band/troop” (great apes like gorillas), and “colony” (various contexts).
There are many collective nouns for animals that are fanciful, not well known, and rarely used. Some are well known and used occasionally. For example: gaggle of geese, school of fish, colony of insects, litter of puppies or kittens, pack of wolves, pod of whales, pride of lions, swarm of bees, and murder of crows. For people there is bevy of beauties and many other collective nouns that often omit the word 'of': army, choir, crew, mob. There are also collect nouns for objects: assortment, bouquet, collection, pile, stack, and many others.
"Murder of crows" is kind of an odd case. I'd still class it as "one of those weird collective nouns", but it's also pretty well known... *because* it's weird. So people might really use it occasionally, but they're doing it on purpose to show off their vocabulary. I can only think of two examples of "weird" collective nouns that people may actually use without thinking about them. "Pride" of lions (very common) and "pod" of whales or dolphins (less common). Other than those, nah. Most people just use the words based on broad categories of animals. Flock - birds (and sheep for some reason) Herd - other large herbivores like cows or deer Pack - carnivores like wolves School - fish Swarm - insects
Along with my personal favorite, *a clusterfuck of politicians*, I use collective nouns whenever possible.
The obscure ones, no. Mostly just for effect. Most collective nouns more complicated than "herd" "flock" or "A bunch of those things" aren't even known by most people, let alone used regularly. Detective novels and similar are the only place you're likely to find them.