What’s the Collective Noun for Web Browsers?

By Craig Buckler

There’s an aarmory of aardvarks. We have a superfluity of nuns. Then there’s a number of statisticians, the highly improbable blessing of unicorns, and a collective of nouns. But how do we refer to a collection of web browsers? As far as I’m aware, no one has defined a term and it’s becoming increasingly awkward to refer to them.

Perhaps it’s because it’s a relatively new concept to discuss more than one web browser? A mere five years ago we had a single mainstream application. Today, however, we have a healthy and competitive market with an <insert noun here> of web browsers to build for and test against. We could use generic nouns such as ‘set’ or ‘group’ but that’s a little boring.

So, because it’s the weekend, I think we should use SitePoint to discuss and decide the definitive name for a collection of web browsers. Here are my initial suggestions:

a wave of web browsers
a surf of web browsers
a render of web browsers

Or, for those of us still testing IE6…

a worry of web browsers
a wince of web browsers
an exasperation of web browsers, or
a murder of web browsers (although the crows might object to that one)

While we’re at it, there’s no collective noun for developers and programmers. ‘Team’ is tedious, and there’s a “cruft” of hackers — why should they have all the grammatical fun? My vote would be for a disagreement of developers or a quarrel of programmers. I’m sure the comments below will substantiate my suggestions…

Meet the author

Craig Buckler

Craig is a freelance UK web consultant who built his first page for IE2.0 in 1995. Since that time he's been advocating standards, accessibility, and best-practice HTML5 techniques. He's written more than 1,000 articles for SitePoint and you can find him @craigbuckler

SLEE

i like the idea of a Gaggle of web browsers
alzwell1

They’re artificially intelligent, so how ’bout a Pod?
Wilhelm Damsleth

A breadth of browsers!
derekerdmann

I like the quarrel of developers, but I’m not so sure what to use for browsers. A headache of browsers? A pain of browsers? Or how about too many browsers?
Jack

How ’bout a swab of web browsers? (went from “shade” to “waddle” to “waggle” back to “waddle” and finally thought, “swab”)

And a complex of programmers.
Ben

Love gaggle of web browsers. Nice SLEE.
cazcastalla

I think perhaps a Distortion of Web Browsers
A Rabble of Developers
A Hustle of Programmers
key_tpol

A stall?
PixieLittle

An expedition of browsers (think Safari, Explorer…). Or a voyage.
boen_robot

How about a “ballot” of browsers, hence the “ballot” screen? Already familiar enough, and is relatively catchy.

As for programmers… I like “team”. What’s wrong with that? Oh, OK, fine… how about a “closure” of programmers? Or perhaps a “nest” of programmers? Maybe a “cage” of programmers (talk about “coding monkeys”…)?
All Sorts

We’ve been tracking #collectivenouns on Twitter for a few months now, and one of the most popular suggestions is:

a curse of internet explorers

We already have a couple of suggestions for the collective noun for web developers, programmers and more generically geeks.

If you would like to have your suggestions added to the All Sorts index of collective nouns, just tweet your ideas – one suggestion per tweet – and include the #collectivenouns hashtag.
Rick O

What, “a surfeit of web browsers” was too obvious?
roberts126

A Cadre of programmers (Cadre of Coders)

A Batch of browsers, An array of browsers (works with the programmers too), or an aggregation of browsers. And no that’s not an aggrevation of browsers.
wfxyz

A cascade of browsers? [CSS]

A markup of browsers? [html][/html]

Should anything must have a collective noun? ;p
Anonymous

population
denizen
AleXis

I prefer:
– Collection of developers
girlwithglasses

The phrase ‘a crapload of browsers’ immediately sprang to mind… as in “I’ve checked the site on a crapload of browsers”.

How about a ponytail of programmers?
girlwithglasses

Just hit by inspiration: a lameness of browsers. ;^)
guruguy

I will second girlwithglasses suggestion of a crapload of browsers, I have been referring to browsers like that for a while now. Maybe a den of programmers, plethora of programmers, army of programmers? I hope you can see the lack of inspiration is obvious. Pointless Sundays are fun
ralph.m

Perhaps a “quirk” of browsers, or “headache”.
LFA

A shoal of browsers with the hope of them all swiming in the same standards driven direction in the future (could work on developers and programmers too).
Valerie Shipbaugh

I agree with Slee – Gaggle for web browsers.
Jeroen

A farm of browsers!
palgrave

May I suggest a tantrum of graphic designers
Craig Buckler

I’m loving ‘quirk’ and ‘crapload’!
A tantrum of designers? And I thought it was just the ones I’d worked with…!
Middleman

How about a yaffle of browsers. It’s a Newfoundland term meaning armload. Certainly it is different.

The University has used is for the name of a search engine: http://www.yaffle.ca/
rc69

I’m with roberts126: an array of browsers; though crapload works just as well.
boen_robot

I’m with “crapload” of browsers… a litle cinical though. Should “definitive” names be cinical? Must we call the MSIE team “a troll squad of programmers” or worse yet – “a c*ck su*king bunch of motherf*ckers” just because we hate IE6? I don’t think so (especially since they are back on that horse with IE8 and are trying even further…).
Jacotheron

How about a beach of browsers or a Net of browsers or a board of browsers.
How a bout a tank of programmers.
ferrari_chris

I’ve always liked “an array of programmers”. It goes well with “a palette of designers.”

Haha.

As for web browsers, I quite liked Craig’s suggestion of “a render of web browsers.”
IDK

Well ‘array’ doesn’t work for the Pythonista.

It would have to be a ‘comprehension’ of python programmers :-)
emanresu

An ‘array’ of programmers doesn’t work for the pythonista.

It would have to be a ‘comprehension’ of python programmers :-)
atw

How about a Smörgåsbord of browsers.

Loving “an array of programmers” and “a tantrum of graphic designers”–awesome!
Elliott

A confusion of browsers?
Craig Buckler

@All Sorts – love “curse of Internet Explorers”!

Markup, cascade, and farm are great too. “Array” is possibly a little too generic for browsers, but works well for developers or programmers.
sinky

Is this what we have droppped to? – who cares!!!
John Allen

How about a bucket of browsers?
the.peregrine

Back when I surfed a lot, I had a small “quiver” of surfboards. Now I have a quiver of browsers for design testing. I like this collective noun because of my personal association with surfing, but it’s also analogous with archery … because with browsers we’re also aiming at various targets (the sites themselves, but also standards compliance).

Jeff
jphilapy

How about a toilet of browsers?
jphilapy

Ahem… I meant a bowl of browsers….
Oliver Ruehl

Snewdrafibble of browsers.
XtrEM3

a book of browsers
HonorGod

How about a “cob” of web browsers? ;-)
Browsers

a cache of browsers?
Middleman

I sort of like the suggestion made for “quiver” by Peregine.
Browsers

I think we should go with

“A Mess of browsers”

“An array of programmers”

“A tantrum of Designer”
Some Observer

My suggestion: A survey of browsers.
FLJerseyBoy

A bollix of browsers.

(Not to be confused with a bollocks of browsers.)
Kaj

An incompatibility of web browsers.
A hash of programmers.

@KajHaffenden
Tim

Cache of browsers
Craig Buckler

I like that. “Cache of browsers” has my vote!
Some Observer

A couple more suggestions:

• a hodgepodge of web browsers
• a farrago of web browsers
• a gallimaufry of web browsers
• a omnium-gatherum of web browsers
• a salmagundi of web browsers
• a jumble of web browsers

All meaning just about the same thing: a motley assortment of things.

Pick the one that has the nicest ring to it.
Dan Deacon

how about a RENDERFARM of Browsers
YahyaAziz

Can’t believe that nobody has yet mentioned a herd of browsers!

BTW, I love the wit of an array of programmers and suspect that the inspiration behind a tantrum of graphics designers may have been found in real life – a developer’s life, that is.

While we’re a it, what about an executive washroom of managers and an expense account of salespeople?