Back in the 15^th Century, collective nouns were all the rage. The system, which assigns a different word for “group” depending on the animal being referred to, was the brainchild of English hunters who wanted to distinguish each of their prey. Some of these terms of venery you definitely know (a gaggle of geese, a school of fish, or a pride of lions, for instance). Others, like the ones below, have all but dropped off from the English language landscape. If your vocabulary hasn’t been expanding lately, these should do the trick.

Here are some collective nouns to enhance all your animal-related writing:

• Labor of moles
• Mustering of storks
• Unkindness of ravens
• College of cardinals
• Smack of jellyfish
• Parliament of owls
• Kindle of kittens
• Dule of doves
• Team of ducks
• Gam of whales
• Trip of goats
• Charm of finches
• String of ponies
• Hand of bananas
• Business of ferrets
• Knot of toads

And for all those groups of people you encounter in your writing:

• Sentence of judges
• Gaggle of women
• Abominable sight of monks
• Neverthriving of jugglers
• Poverty of pipers
• Superfuity of nuns
• Rascal of boys
• Hastiness of cooks
• Herd of harlots
• Tabernacle of bakers
• Impatience of wives
• Doctrine of doctors

And then there’s the most telling collective noun of all: a worship of writers! If you want to delve deeper into the world of collective nouns, check out James Lipton’s book An Exaltation of Larks.