Editor's Corner

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: two turtle doves. If we were using the specific collective noun for a group of doves, I would say that my true love gave me a dole, flight, or piteousness of doves. Then I would probably run and cry because he gave me 1) a “piteousness” of something, and 2) that something was birds, which I’m not really fond of as pets.

As far as collective nouns go, a collective noun is the word used for a group of people or things that are being referred to as a whole, such as “an armada of ships.” I’ve selected some examples for you below, but this is just a taste. The first list is alphabetical by the collective noun; the second list is alphabetical by animal name and followed by the collective noun. Enjoy!

For the full lists of collective nouns from both lists below, visit the Enchanted Learning website.

A selection of collective noun phrases (A to Z):

· army of caterpillars, frogs, soldiers

· belt of asteroids

· caravan of camels

· clowder of cats

· den of snakes, thieves

· fleet of airplanes, ships

· flight of swallows

· gaggle of geese

· host of sparrows

· knot of toads

· leap of leopards

· mob of kangaroos

· nest of mice, snakes

· orchard of trees

· parliament of owls

· quiver of arrows

· range of mountains

· shrewdness of apes

· thicket of trees

· unit of soldiers

· yoke of oxen

A selection of collective nouns for animals (A to Z):

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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