OF ALL THE elements of the English language, the most delightful has got to be the collective noun.
When the word for a group of something is just right, it can be a real joy.
Like these, for example. How many did you know already?
A cackle of hyenas
An illusion of painters
An impatience of wives
An ostentation of peacocks
A rascal of boys
A sentence of judges
A hand of bananas
A superfluity of nuns
A wunch of bankers
A flourish of blossoms
A rhumba of rattlesnakes
A babble of barbers
A shuffle of bureaucrats
COMMENTS (94)