English has a feature called "collective nouns." You'll recognize them. It's how you have a flock of birds, but a murder of crows or a parliament of owls. Each animal has its own special group name. They're also called "nouns of multitude," "nouns of assemblage," "group terms," and "terms of venery." It's my favorite thing about English.
(I got all this from the book An Exaltation of Larks, which is just about this linguistic curiosity.)
We inherit collective nouns from medieval and fifteenth century social primers called Books of Courtesy, written to teach nobles how to talk and how to behave. Among these are helpful lists of "la art de venery," or the art of hunting, which contained lists of collective nouns for the different animals you might hunt, or keep on your farm, or order your peasants to give you in tribute.
One of the definitive lists of these terms of venery is Book of St. Albans, whose authorship is credited to a woman: Dame Juliana Barnes (although this is contested). The book lists 164 nouns of assemblage, in addition to talking about heraldry and hawking. The collective nouns are listed in Chaucerian verse.
"But this is all made up," you protest. Friend, I got bad news for you about what language is. But these terms were also enshrined in laws of the time (laws regarding hunting skulks of foxes, etc.), were repeated by Shakespeare, and, of course, are known dimly by every native speaker of English.
There are collective nouns listed in An Exaltation of Larks for many fantastic beasts...but not everything in a D&D bestiary.
Let's fix that.
N.B., when a term is taken from An Exaltation of Larks (for example, a host of angels) I italicize the term. I keep my own inventions in Roman text.
Collective Nouns of Monsters, et cetera
An obeisance of (aerial) servants
A consternation of anhkhegs
A host of angels
A colony of (giant) ants
A shrewdness of (white) apes
A booth of assassins
A whacking of axe-beaks
A watch of basilisks
A cloud of bats
A sloth of bears
A panopticon of beholders
A bampf of blink dogs
A bafflement of bugbears
A blast of bulettes
A chittering of carrion crawlers
A trampling of centaurs
A kismet of chimera
A clutch of cockatrice
A brace of devils
A disorientation of displacer beasts
A kennel of dogs
A dissimulation of doppelgangers
A desolation of dragons
A flight of dryads
A delving of dwarves
An ideal of elementals
A troupe of elves
An argument of ettins
A cloud of eyes (floating)
A colony of (giant) frogs
A solemnity of gargoyles
A casting of gelatinous cubes
A press of ghosts
A defilement of ghouls
A thundering of giants
A yipping of gnolls
A trice of gnomes
A pandemonium of goblins
A rabble of gods
An amazement of golems
A rushing of griffons
A gross of halflings
A screeching of harpies
A baying of hell hounds
A triumph of hippogriffs
A haggle (archaic) of hobgoblins
A rancor of hydras
A cackle of hyenas
A bedevilment of imps
An absence of invisible stalkers
A court of ki-rin
A bree-yark of kobolds
A blessing of lamasu
A horde of leprechaun
A singularity of liches
A firmament of lurkers above
A grumble of manticores
A gallery of medusae
A rage of mermaids
A masquerade of mimics
A headache of mind flayers
A maze of minotaurs
A colony of mold
A necropolis of mummies
A coven of night hags
A bewitchment of nymphs
A rudeness of ogres
A quivering of oozes
A misery of orcs
A rummage of otyughs
A congress of owlbear
A jubilations of pegasi
A uniqueness of peryton
A dusting of pixies
A luster of purple worms
A whatsit of quasits
A convocation of rocs
A ruination of rodents
A gallery of rogues
A corrosion of rust monsters
A pickle of sahuagin
A conflagration of salamanders
A spoilation of satyrs
A wail of sirens
A lamentation of shadows
A squelching of shambling mounds
A dance of skeletons
A scourging of slimes
A riddle of sphinxes
A venom of spiders
A swarm of sprites
A suckling of stirges
A boscage of treants
A skulk of thieves
A hideous strength of trolls
A crash of umber hulks
A marvel of unicorns
A prowling of vampires
A barrow of wights
A flickering of will o' wisps
A knot of witches
A route of wolves
A confusion of xorn
An assemblage of wyverns
A whiteout of yetis
A stumbling of zombies
Well well! Those are all my favorite beasties. What did I miss? What collective nouns do you offer for them?
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