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General Knowledge Medium ⚡ 10 Questions ⏱️ ~6 Mins +100 XP

Collective Nouns and Curious Names

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Most of these were invented by bored medieval nobility. They stuck anyway.

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~6m

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About this topic

English has an unusually rich set of collective nouns for animals, and a surprising number of them come from a single source: fifteenth-century hunting manuals in which the terms functioned partly as a social test. Knowing that a group of larks is an exaltation marked you as the right sort of person. Alongside those, this quiz covers the proper names of everyday objects — the parts of a shoe, a bottle, a hand — that almost everyone uses daily and almost nobody can name. None of it is essential knowledge, which is rather the point.

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Collective Nouns and Curious Names: all 10 questions and answers

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1A group of ravens is traditionally called what?
- A A pride
- B An unkindness Correct
- C A murder
- D A gaggle
Answer: B. An unkindness

Why: An unkindness, or sometimes a conspiracy. Ravens are noticeably larger than crows and have a wedge-shaped tail in flight.
2A group of owls is known as what?
- A A parliament Correct
- B A congress
- C A court
- D A senate
Answer: A. A parliament

Why: The term was popularised in the twentieth century, borrowing the owl's reputation for wisdom.
3A group of lions is called what?
- A A pack
- B A troop
- C A herd
- D A pride Correct
Answer: D. A pride

Why: Prides are built around related females; males typically join for a few years before being displaced.
4A group of fish swimming together is called what?
- A A gaggle
- B A drove
- C A shoal Correct
- D A flock
Answer: C. A shoal

Why: A shoal is any loose group; a school is a shoal moving in coordinated formation.
5The plastic or metal tip at the end of a shoelace is called what?
- A A cleat
- B An aglet Correct
- C A ferrule
- D A grommet
Answer: B. An aglet

Why: It stops the lace fraying and makes threading possible. The word comes from the French for "small needle".
6The dot over a lower-case i or j is properly called what?
- A A tittle Correct
- B A serif
- C A diacritic
- D A stem
Answer: A. A tittle

Why: It survives in the phrase "to a T", and in "jot or tittle" meaning the smallest possible amount.
7The indentation in the base of a wine bottle is called what?
- A A dimple
- B A well
- C A keel
- D A punt Correct
Answer: D. A punt

Why: It strengthens the bottle and helps sediment settle. It does not indicate quality, despite the common belief.
8A group of geese on the ground is called what?
- A A flight
- B A murmuration
- C A gaggle Correct
- D A skein
Answer: C. A gaggle

Why: In flight the same birds are a skein. A murmuration refers to starlings.
9The space between your eyebrows is called what?
- A The canthus
- B The glabella Correct
- C The philtrum
- D The temple
Answer: B. The glabella

Why: The philtrum is the groove between nose and upper lip.
10A group of kittens is called what?
- A A kindle Correct
- B A clutch
- C A brood
- D A litter of cubs
Answer: A. A kindle

Why: Kindle here comes from an old verb meaning to give birth. A group of adult cats is a clowder.

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