English is peculiar in many ways. They are often annoying peculiarities, but one of its more poetic quirks is having different collective nouns for various groups of animals or other objects.

A pride of lions
A flock of sheep
A school (originally shoal) of fish
A band of men
A slate of candidates
A host of angels
A gam of whales
A gaggle (on the ground) or skein (in flight) of geese
A covey of quail
A murder of crows
An exaltation of larks (the title of a delightful book on English collective nouns by James Lipton)

I was going through a box and came across some 30 year old posts from a forum similar to RFM that existed back then wherein I and a couple other people waxed silly about potential Mormon collective nouns.


A smarm of Ensign authors
An oppression of Visiting Teachers
An intrusion of Home Teachers
A weight of Gospel Doctrine teachers
A stop of church organists
A wave of church choristers
A snore of High Priests
A saccharine of RS teachers
A snicker of deacons
A molestation of scout leaders
A flee of converts
A foretelling of patriarchs
A correction of temple workers
A repetition of testimonies
A twist of scriptures
An odd of ordinances
A shelf of doubts
An intransigence of bishops
A pyramid of salespeople
A pedestal of mothers
An obscurity of scriptorians
A principle of polygamists
A rush of conservatives (remember, this was 30 years ago)
A caffeination of Mormon liberals
An oxymoron of Elders
A sweet of Sisters
A drudgery of missionaries
An arrogance of Assistants to the President
An ambition of mission presidents
A senility of apostles

A coven of Relief Society Presidents

A shamble of Seventies

A swamp of senior missionaries

A cramp of BYU dancers

Delicious! I love language. The quirkier the better.

To update your list, perhaps a Boom of Temples (as in building boom), haha.

Or, to inject a math-sounding term just for you, an exponential growth of temples.

A medical-sounding one could be a carbuncle of temples. (carbuncle = fluctuant nodule - ugh).

(NB: Spellcheck doesn't like 'fluctuant'. Neither do I much).

"What is a fluctuant in medical terms?

"movable and compressible . . . abnormal body structures (as some abscesses or tumors); the fluctuant mass in his abdomen; of abnormal body structures (as some abscesses or tumors), example: the fluctuant mass in his abdomen.

Naturally, I wondered if one could be fluctuant and flatulent but not fraudulent...

A fraudulent of first presidency?

Good stuff!

My favorite is a snore of HPs.

Special kudos for "a shelf of doubts.."

A pride of apostles


Not the same as a pride of lions.

If you get my drift.

An obligation of temples

A multitude of exmos

A festival of ex-mos

a womb of plural wives

a clutch of pearls would be the ladies on the stand at the women's conference!

A gossip of ward council members

A lament of Lamanites

A murder of Danites

A bevy of beehives

A condescension of second anointees

A gargle of high priests



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2024 08:27PM by Lot's Wife.

A condescension! I was fishing around in my brain for that word. It would fit with so many words.

And a trepidation of janitors.

For the 15, and perhaps the other 140.

A wretched hive

As in “never will you see such a wretched hive of scum and villainy” (Star wars, 1977).

A bore of high councilors