What are Collective Nouns?

Collective nouns are words for groups of people, animals, or things that are similar to one another and are spoken of as one whole.

Here are some examples of collective nouns:

Library = a collection of books

Herd = a group of animals

Crowd = a collection of people

Galaxy = a collection of stars

School = a group of fish





family band group crew gang team orchestra class family audience choir staff police audience troupe

Here is a list of collective nouns that are used for groups of people, animals, or things.

a band of musicians a brood of chickens a school of fish a team of players a flight of steps a bunch of keys a class of pupils a collection of books a deck of cards a fleet of ships a flock of sheep a gaggle of geese a gang of robbers a herd of cattle a litter of cubs a pod of whales a pack of wolves a set of stamps a pride of lions a swarm of bees a troupe of actors a pack of coyotes

Singular and Plural Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are singular when we think of them as a single group and plural when we think of the collection of people acting as individuals within the group.

Look at the following examples of singular and plural collective nouns.





If we are talking about eggs, we could say,

A dozen is probably not enough. But if we are partying with our friends, we could say

A dozen are coming over this afternoon.





Many collective nouns can be used with a singular or plural verb

My family was happy to see me.

or

My family were happy to see me. Here are some more examples of collective nouns in sentences.