Have you ever seen a troupe of acrobats perform? Can you hear a pound of carpenters as they work on your house? What about the pint of Irishmen you met last night in the bar? Do you think you will see them again? How often do you think you would find a catalogue of librarians and an imagination of writers together?
Many of the following collective nouns for people focus on their profession or hobby; others focus on nationality. I found a lot of the collective nouns listed below, but some of them were made up by me. If you can think of others that you think should be added to the list, please put them in a comment.
a troupe of acrobats
a conflagration of arsonists
a twirl of ballerinas
a promise of barmen
a boast of barristers
a shower of bastards
a rascal of boys, pixabay
a fighting of beggars
a rascal of boys
a feast of brewers
a shuffle of bureaucrats
a goring of butchers
a sneer of butlers
a pound of carpenters
a board of chess players
a cutting of cobblers
a banquet of cooks, wikimedia commons
a gaggle of comedians
a banquet of cooks
a shrivel of critics
a cowardice of curs
a tantrum of decorators
an amalgram of dentists
a rash of dermatologists
a subtlety of designers
a roll of drummers
a prance of equestrians
a catch of fishermen
a party of friends
a talent of gamblers
a helix of geneticists
a formation of geologists at work, flickr
a formation of geologists
a plane of geometrists
a gross of Germans
a slither of gossip columnists
a conjunction of grammarians
a wisdom of grandparents
a grope of groupies
a smear of gynecologists
a swish of hairdressers
a melody of harpists
a debauchery of hedonists
an expectation of heirs
a trip of hippies, flickr
a trip of hippies
a flagon of hobos
a cavalcade of horsemen
a blast of hunters
a blur of impressionists
a tongue of interpreters
a pint of Irishmen
an explosion of Italians
a wheeze of joggers
a scoop of journalists
a sentence of judges
a wheeze of joggers, pixabay
a damning of jurors
a quarrel of lawyers
a drift of lecturers
a catalogue of librarians
an illusion of magicians
a bench of magistrates
a set of mathematicians
a density of meatheads
a clutch of mechanics
an amalgamation of metallurgists
a shower of meteorologists
a colony of microbiologists
an expectation of midwives
a troupe of minstrels,
Them minstrels at the Spotted Cat in New Orleans, wikimedia commons
a troupe of minstrels
a cortege of mourners
a reflection of narcissists
a jungle of Nazis
a squeal of nieces
a freeze of Northerners
a pray of nuns
a brace of orthodontists
a cast of orthopaedists
a joint of osteopaths
a misbelief of painters
a flash of paparazzi, wikimedia commons
a flash of paparazzi
an embarrassment of parents, a persistence of parents
a lying of pardoners
a body of pathologists
a malapertness of pedlars
a meter of percussionists
a ponder of philosophers
a snap of photographers
a nucleus of physicists
a skirl of pipers – In the following video, not only is there a skirl of pipers, but there is also a roll of drummers and a clan of Scots.
a flush of plumbers
a rhyme of poets
a lie of politicians
a mass of priests
a blaze of pyromaniacs
a flight of refugees
a clan of Scots
an obeisance of servants
a crush of shoppers, flickr
a crush of shoppers
a hack of smokers
a quiz of teachers
an attitude of teenagers
a graft of tree surgeons
an unction of undertakers
a sprig of vegetarians
a prudence of vicars
an imagination of writers, photo by Bryce Laslie
an order of waiters
an amble of walkers
a net of webmasters
an ambush of widows
an impatience of wives
a crunch of wrestlers
an imagination of writers
Writing Prompt: Just reading the collective noun for each group of people should cause your imagination to take flight. Choose the one you like the most and write a story around it. Write about how you think the collective noun fits that particular group of people.
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Owls: Harbingers of Doom
Cats – Egyptians, a Pope, & the Middle Ages
