Quirky Collective Nouns

Some of you are learning about collective nouns here at EC English Language School. One of the many oddities of the English language is the multiplicity of different names given to collections or groups, be they animals, birds, people or things. Many of these collective nouns are evocative, and extremely clever.

We should all know the common ones: like a parliament of rooks; a run of poultry; a herd of bison; a pod of dolphins; a colony of ants; a swarm of bees; a school of cod; a shoal of herrings; a tribe of natives; a cortège of mourners and many, many others.

However, I’ve searched the internet and found some new, different, amusing and perhaps, funny quirky English collective nouns, which may make you smile:

1. A jam of tarts
2. A sentence of judges
3. A load of cobblers
4. An expectation of midwives
5. An annoyance of neighbours
6. A melody of violinists
7. An impatience of wives
8. A conflagration of arsonists
9. An illusion of magicians
10. A horde of misers
11. An exaggeration of fishermen
12. A yearning of yesterdays
13. A ponder of philosophers
14. A nucleus of physicists
15. A portfolio of stockbrokers
16. A flush of plumbers
17. A corps of anatomists
18. A bodge of DIYers
19. A scoop of journalists
20. A decanter of publicans