# Where does the phrase "murder of crows" come from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase-murder-of-crows-come-from/516604>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 6, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase-murder-of-crows-come-from/516604 "2009-11-06T17:24:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase-murder-of-crows-come-from/516604/21 "2009-11-06T23:24:05Z")

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> [@Terry\_Kennedy](#):
>
> A [clowder](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clowder).

I had to look up the eytmology of that and got: 1811, variant of clutter. Sounds like a comment on the herdability of cats.

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**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase-murder-of-crows-come-from/516604/22 "2009-11-06T23:33:10Z")

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> [@Terry\_Kennedy](#):
>
> A [clowder](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clowder).

And a group of Clams is a chowder.

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