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Animal Group Names

This quiz has two parts:
  1. Guess the group name
  2. Guess the animal based on the group name
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 26, 2019
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First submittedAugust 25, 2016
Times taken10,078
Average score38.1%
Rating4.15
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Animal
Group Name
Birds
Flock
Dogs
Pack
Lions
Pride
Elk
Herd
Fish
School or Shoal
Crows
Murder
Dolphins
Pod
Frogs
Army
Baboons
Troop
Group Name
Animal
Gaggle
Geese
Parliament
Owls
Skulk
Foxes
Clutch
Chickens
Convocation
Eagles
Array
Hedgehogs
Group Name
Animal
Convent
Pelicans
Unkindness
Ravens
Business
Ferrets
Sleuth
Bears
Kindle
Kittens
Crash
Rhinoceroses
+2
Level 44
Aug 25, 2016
Wikipedia has convent as a term for penguins...pelicans as a pod.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_terms_of_venery,_by_animal

+2
Level 70
Dec 20, 2016
I tried penguins for convent as well.
+1
Level 88
Jan 12, 2017
I did too.
+1
Level 66
Apr 23, 2020
same, not because I knew it, but it felt logical, like all of them in their habits
+1
Level 79
May 9, 2019
In which dictionary is convent of pelicans accepted as in common use? I'd like to know what the source of this answer is.
+1
Level 77
Aug 25, 2016
I only got 7. These are some of the weirdest names for groups.
+1
Level 77
Aug 25, 2016
I would have thought that convent would be for cardinals. Anybody?
+1
Level 59
Jan 12, 2017
Nuns?!
+1
Level 62
Feb 17, 2018
Monk(ey)s?
+1
Level 74
Mar 26, 2019
XD
+1
Level 66
Apr 23, 2020
Capuchins ;)
+1
Level 85
Aug 25, 2016
Do other languages have similarly bizarre terms? To paraphrase Monty Python: "On second thought, let's not use English. 'Tis a silly language."
+1
Level 85
Aug 25, 2016
Some of these (e.g., "sleuth", "crash") don't even make it into the OED. Maybe it's not English that's silly, just certain English speakers.
+1
Level 71
Oct 22, 2016
Wow, this was hard. And hilarious. Why does English need different words for all animal groups? And did anyone else try human for parliament, nuns for convent and bandicoot for crash?
+1
Level 68
Jan 12, 2017
English doesn't need any of these terms, that's why 90% of them have fallen out of use completely. I suspect most of them were always rather esoteric and used by specific groups of people. Neither Merriam Webster nor the OED list most of these definitions.
+5
Level 76
May 1, 2018
Why did you define the word esoteric after you used it in a sentence? That's redundant and unnecessarily repetitive.
+1
Level 66
Nov 14, 2018
Jared: You can say that again!
+1
Level 78
Feb 3, 2023
Jared: not to mention tautological and pleonastic.
+3
Level 74
Oct 22, 2016
It's a flange of baboons (and a whoop of gorillas)
+1
Level 74
Nov 29, 2016
Cats are typically called a clowder. I've never heard kindle being used.
+1
Level 51
Jan 13, 2017
Only for kittens, not for adult cats.
+1
Level 61
Jan 13, 2017
A kindle is mostly used for kittens/baby animals.
+2
Level 69
Sep 4, 2018
Or, if you just want to refer to your own pet cats collectively, that's called a pounce!
+1
Level 68
Dec 27, 2016
Cool quiz! Don't know how I got the Unkindness one! Must have been put in my brain at some stage...
+1
Level 68
Dec 27, 2016
Crash is easy :-)
+1
Level 80
Jan 12, 2017
The words are usually described as "Collective Nouns" rather than "Group Names". Maybe that should be in the title or description too?
+1
Level 76
May 1, 2018
They're actually called terms of venery.
+1
Level 66
Aug 28, 2019
I didnt know what was asked at first either, tried feline for lion etc. (Then felinae and other variation)
+1
Level 43
Jan 12, 2017
Hmm, I tried Bandicoots for Crash.
+2
Level 68
Jan 12, 2017
an army of frogs sounds particularly horrifying.
+1
Level 83
Oct 8, 2017
They are probably experts at frog-marching.
+1
Level 69
Sep 4, 2018
I was kinda hoping/expecting a group of frogs would be called a plague.
+1
Level 66
Aug 28, 2019
I read you were hopping..
+1
Level 67
Jan 12, 2017
The people who invented English must have been having a slow day when they got to animal groups. "Herd" would work perfectly fine for all of these. Not that I'm complaining. It's just weird that for this very particular purpose, we need a different noun for every animal. I can't think of any other subject in which English does that.
+1
Level ∞
Jan 12, 2017
Most animal group names are made up in recent times. People repeat them as if they are somehow official. Maybe I should make one up and put it on this quiz!
+6
Level 86
Jan 6, 2019
A pedantry of Jetpunkers :)
+3
Level ∞
Jan 6, 2019
So true @cornflakesfu
+1
Level 66
Aug 28, 2019
Well, people... even if you disregard occupation related things. You got a gang, clique, posse, band (of brothers), gathering. Well the list is rather endless, (most are connected to a certain activity though, like a group of people walking, caravan, colonne)
+1
Level 78
Jan 12, 2017
Don't forget a crush of shrimp.
+2
Level 59
Jan 12, 2017
I imagine that these odd group lists were created by the same rich, bored people who decided that every flower and gem stone had symbolic meaning. So if you sent your friend peonies and a turquoise ring, that had a different secret meaning than if you had sent daisies and pearls. Apparently even the position of a stamp on an envelope had meaning. There was also this whole complex system of what type of visitation card you left depending on your social status as well as a plethora of dining utensils and drinking glasses.
+1
Level 51
Jan 13, 2017
Terms of venery have been around since the Middle Ages, when they were used mostly by hunters. By the 1500s, however, it had been turned into a sort of game to make up appropriate new ones.
+1
Level 66
Aug 28, 2019
Then they werent surrounded by a whole bunch of useless pointless things like nowadays. So yea plenty of "room" to make new things up.

The bliss of having nothing else to than look at a flower and thinking about it s deeper meaning.Or spend your free time comparing shapes of leaves We dont see the simply things in life anymore, because the entire world is screaming at us in colours and flashing and screens etc. (And not to mention thepeople themselves..)

+1
Level 82
Jan 13, 2017
I got skulk and crash but somehow I blanked on elk.
+1
Level 84
Aug 10, 2017
"Bunch" should be accepted for all of these. I know when I was a kid, I caught a whole bunch of frogs. :-P
+1
Level 66
Aug 28, 2019
Sounds about right. My personal term world be collection (in my language, so not really in the sense of collecting, but like a gathering).
+1
Level 49
Apr 30, 2018
Strange! I got 7 but one of them was a kindle of kittens. No idea how I know that
+1
Level 69
Sep 4, 2018
Other cat ones: A group of (domestic) cats is called a clowder, but that usually refers to a feral colony. If you want a collective name for all the pet cats in your household, that's called a pounce!
+1
Level 76
May 1, 2018
I think my favorite is a kaleidoscope of butterflies.
+1
Level 69
Sep 4, 2018
I would like to nominate an exultation of larks for the next update, because DAMN. "An exultation of larks" just sounds so beautiful!
+2
Level 82
Jul 31, 2019
I heard of an 'implausability of gnus' the other day, which I thought was rather lovely.
+1
Level 72
Apr 6, 2021
A group of penguins is a convent. A pod of pelicans, on the other hand, has no particularly religious habits.
+1
Level 64
Jun 11, 2021
Please could you allow box for frogs? As in, mad as a box of frogs? 🐸 🐸🐸
+1
Level 63
Aug 16, 2022
lol i totally didnt get what this was about i thought this was about groups of species of animals names so i thought birds would be avia or dinosaur or animalia or vertebra or something like that lol so i was really confused untill i saw the answers
+1
Level 76
Sep 10, 2023
i'd be interested to see a source for these. i know they're not really 'official' but it would be nice to see a longer list from which these are drawn