Common Collective Nouns: Examples, Worksheets, and a Quiz

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What is a Collective Noun?

A collective noun is a noun that stands for a group of individual people, things, or animals. So instead of saying “there are many dolphins,” you could say “there’s a pod of dolphins.”

Are Collective Nouns Singular or Plural?

Generally, most collective nouns are paired with singular verbs. Singular verb agreements sound more natural to native speakers and should be your default choice.

The class was reading. (singular)

The herd moves toward the river. (singular)

The exception to this rule is if members of that collective are doing different things. For example:

The students of the class choose different things to do. (plural)

The members of the team aren’t all here today. (plural)

In this case, we’ve added “students of” and “members of” because the sentence otherwise sounds incredibly odd. We wouldn’t say:

The class choose different things to do. (plural)

The team aren’t all here today. (plural)

The 15 Most Common Collective Nouns

There are tons of collective nouns out there, but only a few are used in everyday life. Here are fifteen that we think are good to know for the average English learner.

Crowd: Large group of people

The crowd (of fans) cheered loudly.

Group: smaller numbers of people together

Our group (of friends) couldn’t get into the restaurant.

Committee: People with a single purpose

The party committee isn’t doing a very good job.

Team: People working together in a competition

I can’t believe you never saw our school’s soccer team.

Class: Students

The class headed out for lunch five minutes ago.

Family: Related people

Our family went to Belize this summer.

Collection: Similar things

Did you know he has a collection of cars at home?

Swarm: Bees, Flies

A swarm of bees attacked after we got too close to their nest.

Pack: Wolves, Dogs, Group of the same things bought together

The pack (of wolves) hunted throughout the night.

He bought a pack of crackers for the train ride.

Flock: Birds, Sheep

The flock (of birds) danced in the wind.

School: Fish

I saw several schools of fish while I was snorkeling.

Cattle: Cows

The cattle calmly meandered along the road.

Pod: Dolphins, Whales

Can you see that pod of dolphins over there?

Herd: Elephants, Horses, Cows

If you’re lucky you might see a herd of elephants on the safari.

Litter: Baby pigs, baby dogs, and baby cats who are born together

A new litter of puppies was born just last night.

10 Collective Nouns for Animals

Almost all animal groups have their own special collective noun. The most important ones were highlighted above, but here are some more fun ones that you can impress your friends or classmates with.

If you don’t know what term to use, “a bunch of …” is always a good choice.