I’m a fan of collective nouns. I find charm and intrigue in an unkindness of ravens, a murder of crows, an ostentation of peacocks, and the rest. So, the other morning when I woke up at a crazy early hour to the sound of baby birds singing in the courtyard —and to my cat’s great pleasure at their choir’s tunes—I started to muse about the “choir of baby birds” and from there I was off and running with a list of ridiculous, original collective nouns. There’s no reason I should share them, except that I had so much fun writing them and I’d like to invite you to join in the game.
So…
Here’s my personal list. I doubt you’ll find that any of these are in, or will find a way into, common use, but I had a great time playing with the sounds and images they provoke. Let me know what you think and please share any of your own making!
A Thunder of Zombies
An Echo of Ghosts
An Amazement of Unicorns
A Shudder of Vampires
A Howling of Werewolves
A Fraternity of Yeti
A Stew of Cannibals
An Opera of Sirens
A Revenge of Harpies
A Challenge of Sphinxes
A Stampede of Centaurs
A Conspiracy of Gorgons
A Tsunami of Kraken
A Catalog of Shape Shifters
A Marathon of Reapers
A Whisper of Sylphs
A Confusion of Changelings
A Storm of Dragons
A Blizzard of Bigfoot
A Tide of Nessie (from Loch Ness and elsewhere)
Imagine a Challenge of Sphinxes!
VERY funny, Candy !
a tsunami of kraken
and
a fraternity of yeti
roll particularly hilariously off the tongue 🙂
So glad you like ’em. Especially the Kraken. I giggled when I wrote it.
This is great, Candy! I’m also enamored of collective nouns, and I’ve actually been working on something like this, myself, only not with monsters.
I’d love to see your list!
If you’re up for sharing it…
LOVE these!!! You need to work them into your writing!
Interesting.
Let’s see how I can do it?
Still giggling over a ‘stew of cannibals’. Gruesome but so visual!
I laughed when I wrote it.
Yes, the visual is dismal, but funny.