Lexic.us

Definition of Collective noun

1. Noun. A noun that is singular in form but refers to a group of people or things.

Definition of Collective noun

1. Noun. (grammar) A noun which, though singular, refers to a group of things or animals. Examples: a school of fish, a pride of lions. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Collective Noun

Literary usage of Collective noun

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical by Henry Sweet (1903)
"SINGULAR INDIVIDUAL NOUN = collective noun. 1066. By the analogy of the old unchanged plurals such as sheep, a large number of names of animals have come to ..."

2. The Institutes of English Grammar, Methodically Arranged: With Forms of by Goold Brown (1861)
"When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Pronoun must agree with it in the plural number; as, "The council were divided ..."

3. Syntax of Early Latin by Charles Edwin Bennett (1914)
"collective noun used without the preposition as an Ablative of Agency : tanto ... collective noun ..."

4. A Grammar of the English Language by Samuel Stillman Greene (1873)
"The Common. The Park. 6. Under the head of common nouns are commonly reckoned collective, abstract, and verbal nouns. 7. A collective noun is one which, ..."

5. A Practical Grammar of the English Language by Noble Butler (1879)
"... blame rests on me or thee;" " He was injured by neither poverty nor riches," etc. 16. A collective noun in the singular number takes a singular verb ..."

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