A guide to collective nouns for birds. Learn what to call groups of eagles, owls, geese, and more with their fascinating origins.
Here’s the honest answer: there isn’t one. Hermit crabs don’t have a widely documented, official collective noun of their own. Some sources loosely borrow “colony” or “cast” from regular crabs, but nothing has ever stuck specifically for hermit crabs, despite them being some of the most quietly dramatic roommates in the ocean. So instead of … Read more
Here’s the honest answer: there isn’t one. Prawns are one of the rare animals on this site with no widely documented, official collective noun. A few sources toss around “pint” or “shoal,” but neither has any real consensus behind it, they’re just other people’s guesses dressed up as fact. Rather than pretend one of those … Read more
What Does “A Cast of Crayfish” Mean? “Cast” is the collective noun for a group of crayfish, the same word used for their marine cousins, crabs. Crayfish are freshwater relatives of lobsters, found in rivers, streams, and ponds, and while the word borrows theatrical imagery, a company of performers assembled together, there’s no well-documented explanation … Read more
A group of crayfish is called a cast. It’s the same word used for a group of crabs, which makes sense given how closely related the two are. Crayfish are freshwater relatives of lobsters, built along the same basic body plan, and while they’re found in rivers, ponds, and streams rather than the ocean, the … Read more
What Does “A Colony of Barnacles” Mean? “Colony” is the collective noun for a group of barnacles, and it’s one of the most literally accurate terms on this site. Barnacles hatch as free-swimming larvae, drift with the plankton for a while, and then settle head-first onto a hard surface, rock, dock piling, boat hull, even … Read more
A group of barnacles is called a colony. It’s a fitting word, and an honest one. Barnacles spend almost their entire adult lives cemented to a single spot, packed in tight against countless others of their kind, and “colony” captures that reality directly rather than reaching for a clever or borrowed image. What Is a … Read more
What Does “A Swarm of Krill” Mean? “Swarm” is the collective noun for a group of krill, and unlike many of the terms on this site, it’s not a borrowed or whimsical word, it’s a direct, accurate description of real krill behavior. These small, shrimp-like crustaceans gather in immense numbers, forming some of the densest … Read more
A group of krill is called a swarm. Unlike a lot of collective nouns on this site, “swarm” isn’t a stretch or a borrowed word applied for the sake of wordplay, it’s a plain, accurate description of what krill actually do. These small, shrimp-like crustaceans gather by the billions in some of the largest aggregations … Read more
What Does “A Risk of Lobsters” Mean? “Risk” is the standard collective noun for a group of lobsters, and it’s one of the odder entries on this site, mostly because there’s no solid, documented explanation for where it comes from. It doesn’t trace back to the old medieval hunting-term tradition the way many bird and … Read more
A group of lobsters is called a risk. It’s an unusual word to find attached to an animal, and that’s part of what makes it memorable. Lobsters aren’t naturally social, in fact, they’re famously the opposite, so “risk” isn’t describing some cooperative pod moving through the water together. It’s simply the term that’s stuck as … Read more