Definition:
A noun (such as "team" or "family") that refers to a collection of individuals. In American English, collective nouns usually take singular verb forms. Collective nouns can be replaced by both singular and plural pronouns, depending on their meaning.
Examples:
- "The family is one of nature's masterpieces."
(George Santayana) - "The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong."
(George Bernard Shaw) - "The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence."
(H.L. Mencken) - "Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening."
(Dorothy Sarnoff) - "I had a pretty amazing childhood. I was adopted, but my family are amazing, very stable."
(Faith Hill) - "Liverpool are magic, Everton are tragic."
(Emlyn Hughes, referring to two English football teams) - "Either New York is going to kick me out of New York this year, say 'I've had enough of this guy, get him the hell out of here,' and we have an option. Or New York is going to say, 'Hey, we won a world championship, you had a big year, you were a part of it and we want you back.'"
(Alex Rodriguez, referring to the New York Yankees baseball team, 2007) - "My peer group is white and sort of bohemian, educated and supposedly aware."
(Lynda Barry)
