Writers, what’s the term for a group of kittens?
No, not a kitten caboodle. The correct answer won the author a free lunch. In return, she’s shared 21 terms for groups of various species. Now, what would we call a group of writers?
I was sitting in a sandwich shop waiting for my order. A white board by the cash register said: “This week’s word puzzler. Tell us the term for a group of kittens and your lunch is on the house.”
I recalled my time in library school—before anyone had ever heard of Google—when we were charged with looking up answers to questions like these … and I remembered. The collective term for a group of kittens is kindle.
Since then, I have always been fascinated with terms of venery or words for groups of animals. Oddly enough, the English language is full of them. Here are a few of my favorites, taken from James Lipton’s book An Exaltation of Larks.
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