Basic Details
Word: Collective
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Done or shared by all the members of a group together. As a noun, a collective is a group of people who run a business or work together as equals.
Synonyms: shared, joint, common, combined
Antonyms: individual, separate
How to Spell Collective
Syllables: col - lec - tive
Tricky part: The double l comes from collect, and it is often cut to one. The ending is -ive, with an e that students sometimes drop: collectiv.
Watch out for: colective, collectiv, collectve
Memory tip: If you can spell collect, with its two l's, you only need to add -ive.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Winning the inter-house trophy was a collective effort by every student in Green House.
Example 2: The farmers formed a collective to sell their organic vegetables directly in the city.
Example 3: There was a collective sigh when the power went off during the final over.
Fun Fact
English has many traditional collective nouns for animals, such as a pride of lions, a murder of crows and a parliament of owls.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word collective as used in the sentence:
Our team's collective score was the highest in the district quiz.
a) combined
b) joint
c) individual
d) shared
Show answer
c) individual. A score earned by one person is individual, while this one was shared by the whole team.
Word Makeup
Only one of these words can take the suffix -ive. Choose it:
-ive
a) gather
b) pile
c) collect
d) heap
Show answer
c) collect. Collect and -ive join with no change at all, which none of the other three can do.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
After a long meeting, the villagers reached a ecvlticeol decision to repair the pond themselves.
a) collective
b) collection
c) connective
d) corrective
Show answer
a) collective. The jumble holds two l's and a v but no n or r, so collection, corrective and connective all drop out.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is a collective noun?
a) bird
b) flock
c) feather
d) fly
Show answer
b) flock
2. Collective responsibility means that ____.
a) no one is answerable
b) only the leader is answerable
c) each person works alone
d) everyone in the group shares the blame or credit
Show answer
d) everyone in the group shares the blame or credit
