I like “tounge in cheek” collective nouns. Normal collective nouns are singular nouns that represent a set of something, usually animals.1 Classic examples include a school (of fish), a pride (of lions), a gaggle (of geese), and a skein (of geese in flight). I like collective nouns that say something funny or snarky about the members of the collection.

Every once in a while I think of a funny collective noun. I kept a list of these that I would add to, but somehow that list got discarded or indefinitely mislaid during a recent office move. So I thought I’d try to recover as many as I could remember and list them here. Feel free to supply some additional ones; if they make the cut, then I’ll add them to the list.

  • A confusion of managers
  • A compilation of programmers
  • A quandry of philosophers
  • A deception of con-artists
  • A trial of testers2
  • A delusion of CAM supporters
  • An accomodation of politicians
  • A froth of extremists
  • A chord of musicians

I had a lot more on the list. If I remember some good ones, I’ll update this post.

  1. When are they not representing a collection of animals? At first, the only one I could think of was baggage (a set of travel bags), but I’m not even certain that counts. A range (of mountains) could be another. A pack (of cards). Any others? ↩

  2. Software testers, Quality Assurance folk, Quality Engineers. ↩