# Animal group names....cats **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922 "2004-01-17T14:28:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/1 "2004-01-17T14:28:19Z")
A **murder** of crows, a **flock** of geese, a **herd** of cattle, a **pack** of dogs…among many others. Is there a name for a group of domestic cats? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/2 "2004-01-17T14:49:21Z")
Those animals have group names because they are social in nature. Domestic cats don’t normally form groups. Kind of like bears. What do you call a group of bears? ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/3 "2004-01-17T14:51:05Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > A **murder** of crows, a **flock** of geese, a **herd** of cattle, a **pack** of dogs…among many others. > > Is there a name for a group of domestic cats? According to this site there are many collective names for cats: [http://rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml](http://rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml) Among them are: clutter, pounce, and kendle. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/4 "2004-01-17T14:56:26Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > What do you call a group of bears? A sloth apparently. There’s not much logic in group nouns. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/5 "2004-01-17T16:07:20Z")
> [@everton](#): > > A sloth apparently. There’s not much logic in group nouns. Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/6 "2004-01-17T16:12:34Z")
Occasionally, groups of female cats get together and look after each other’s kittens while one of them goes hunting. I’ve heard that refered to as a “colony” a couple of times, though I don’t know how widespread the usage is. ---
**Author:** ![Indefatigable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9d8465/32.png) [@Indefatigable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indefatigable)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/7 "2004-01-17T16:28:15Z")
**Hamish:** you could almost call that a pride, along the lines of what lions do. Except it doesn’t have a tomcat. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/8 "2004-01-17T16:38:45Z")
> [@Indefatigable](#): > > **Hamish:** you could almost call that a pride, along the lines of what lions do. Except it doesn’t have a tomcat. I’ve seen some documentation that groups of farm cats sometimes exhibit lion-like social behavior including males taking over groups of females and killing kittens. I was originally thinking “pride”, too, based on that evidence. But somehow a “pride” of housecats just doesn’t sound right. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/9 "2004-01-17T17:08:37Z")
In the essay “Don’t give me one dozen roses, give me a nosegay” from _A Passport Secretly Green_ Noel Perrin refers to a “clowder of cats” and “a kindle of kittens.” The essay is about group nouns, mostly from the Late Victorian era dictionary the author found. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/10 "2004-01-17T18:33:59Z")
It sounds as though Noel Perrin was borrowing from James Lipton’s An Exaltation of Larks, (or from the same sources that Lipton used). However, _clowder_ is simply an earlier form of the word _clutter_ that **Thin Ice** posted, and (as one who has to wade through a clutter to get into bed on a cold night) I find clutter descriptive and clowder (mildly) pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/11 "2004-01-17T19:46:37Z")
Noel Perrin cites _Nuttall’s Standard Dictionary of the English Language_, published in London in 1887. He gives no other information about this dictionary in my edition of the book. Dunno about this Lipton guy. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/12 "2004-01-17T20:41:18Z")
> [@everton](#): > > A sloth apparently. There’s not much logic in group nouns. (concerning bears) Or a “sleuth” in some sources. Not that that makes any more sense. In fact, it makes less - bears can seem to be rather slothful, lying around a lot. Not much ursine work ethic in evidence. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/13 "2004-01-17T22:59:13Z")
Forced grouping as in a cageless shelter is called a colony ---
**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/14 "2004-01-18T03:28:40Z")
I’d call them a bunch. It has less pedigree than the other suggestions but it’s damned accurate. Otherwise, just say “the cats” or “some cats”. Cats are pretty hard to pin down so a group noun shouldn’t need to be specific. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-group-names-cats/224922/15 "2004-01-18T04:43:18Z")
A group of cats? @#$%&! underfoot! That’s what I usually call 'em! 😃 I’ve also heard “Clowder” for adult cats and “Kindle” for kittens. My source is he World Almanac.