By Category:
* Animals:
* Birds: flock, gaggle (geese), murder (crows), parliament (owls)
* Fish: school, shoal, swarm (herring)
* Insects: colony, swarm, hive (bees)
* Mammals: herd (cattle, elephants), pack (dogs, wolves), pride (lions), troop (monkeys)
* People:
* General: group, crowd, assembly, company, congregation
* Specific: band (musicians), choir, crew (ship), jury, team
* Objects:
* General: pile, heap, bunch, stack
* Specific: fleet (ships), bouquet (flowers), garland (flowers)
* Technology: network (computers), array (solar panels), constellation (satellites)
By Function:
* Formal: These nouns are typically used in more formal writing or speech. Examples include:
* Faculty (a group of teachers)
* Government (a group of people who govern)
* Parliament (a group of people who make laws)
* Informal: These nouns are more commonly used in everyday speech. Examples include:
* Bunch (a group of people)
* Crowd (a large group of people)
* Gang (a group of people who often do things together)
Other Types:
* Compound Collective Nouns: These nouns are formed by combining two words, like "flock of birds" or "herd of elephants".
* Figurative Collective Nouns: These nouns use a metaphor to describe a group, like "a sea of faces" or "a forest of hands".
Important Note:
It's important to remember that some collective nouns can have different meanings depending on the context. For example, a "team" can refer to a group of people who work together, or it can refer to a group of animals, like a "team of horses".