Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

Do you know the ridiculous term for a group of jellyfish? Find out here. We all have our favourites. A flush of fungi. A bask of crocodiles. A charm of finches. And a superfluity of nuns – well, maybe ...

Most collective nouns, or "terms of venery," were coined during the 15th century. Many were codified in books of courtesy, like the 1486 classic Book of St. Albans. St. Albans was a handbook for ...

Although they’ve been common parlance since the Middle Ages, the meaning of many collective nouns for people or professions are not always as obvious as they might first appear. For instance, many may ...

Variously idiosyncratic, intriguing and often unerringly apt in their descriptions of gatherings of birds, animals and people a damning of jurors, an incredulity of cuckolds — most of the collective ...

We can use singular or plural verbs with many collective nouns, Pamela, and government is one of these. Singular and plural forms are often mixed as are the pronouns that refer back to the nouns in ...

Why do we need a ‘gaggle of geese’, an ‘exaltation of larks’ or a ‘smack of jellyfish’, and who decides their group term? It turns out that the only boring thing about collective nouns is their name, ...

The legacy of a 15th-Century noblewoman lives on in the form of collective nouns used to describe groups of animals across the world. “Do you know what those are called?” the safari guide at ...

Collective nouns may seem like quirky ways to describe groups, but 500 years ago, they were your ticket to the in-crowd. Most collective nouns, or “terms of venery,” were coined during the 15th ...