Half-Life Collective Nouns

20th December 2011

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Collective nouns are words used to define a group of objects. Although primarily applied to animals, collective nouns can be used for people, inanimate objects, concepts or other things.

It doesn’t take long to find some really interesting ones. So as I sat in the airport lounge again, I started to wonder what the collective noun for zombies was and lo and behold I found this, which is a list of potential words. My favourite is rotting.

There are plenty of sites that list collective nouns, but this one seems very good. For those interested, the thumbnail is a murder of crows. For some supernatural options, try this image.

This of course led me to wonder about things related to Half-Life.

So, just for fun, lets see if we can create collective nouns for:

  • Crowbars
  • Headcrabs
  • Crates
  • Scientists
  • Antlions
  • Manhacks
  • Advisors
  • Striders
  • Hunters
  • Metrocops
  • Companion Cubes
  • Gargantuans
  • Vortigaunts
  • Houndeyes
  • Barnacles
  • Snarks

14 Comments

  1. A screaming of headcrabs.
    An assembly of antlions
    A stirring of striders
    A whirring of manhacks.

    1. Jim P

      A festering of barnacles

      1. Ville

        Are you sure you even want to know? 😀

        1. ooh uhh yeah.. about that cat..?

  2. A Freeman of Crowbars
    A festering of Headcrabs
    A cluster of Crates
    A quark of Scientists
    A swarm of Antlions
    A hacking of Manhacks
    A wobble of Advisors
    An troop of Striders
    A pack of Hunters
    A unit of Metrocops
    A company of Companion Cubes
    A furore of Gargantuans
    A force of Vortigaunts
    A litter of Houndeyes
    A cornucopia of Barnacles ?
    A rabblement of Snarks
    and, I like:
    A horde of zombies

    what do you think?

    1. We could use Swarm for manhacks, that is pretty good.

      A quark of scientists is also nice.

    2. Kyo

      “And a Headcrab in a pear tree!”

    3. Dias

      As much as I hate specific collective nouns, I figure I’ll give this a shot.

      A murder of Crowbars
      A cluster of Headcrabs
      A bunch of Crates
      A team of Scientists
      An army of Antlions
      A swarm of Manhacks
      A board of Advisors (I had to)
      A herd of Striders
      A pack of Hunters
      A squad of Metrocops
      A congregate of Companion Cubes
      A gang of Gargantuas
      A troop of Vortigaunts
      A litter of Houndeyes
      A bed of Barnacles
      A plague of Snarks
      A horde of Zombies
      A school of Ichthyosaurs

      (Oops, this wasn’t supposed to be a reply.)

  3. A resonance of cascades
    A cartesian of companion cubes

  4. Shadgrimgrvy

    A bushel of crowbars
    A murder of headcrabs (like crows)
    An assortment of crates
    A gang of hunters
    A squad of Metrocops
    A pack of houndeyes
    A gaggle of snarks

  5. NAN

    A bust of crates.
    A harrow of headcrabs.
    A fetter of antlions

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