herd
UK/hɜːd//hɝd/
herd noun: a number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
Noun (1)
herd (plural herds)
- A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
- a herd of cattle
- a herd of sheep
- Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.
- Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.2007 March, J. Michael Fay, “Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma”, in National Geographic, section 47
- Zebras can also be called a herd or a zeal.2019 June 6, “A Gaggle, a Confusion and a Conspiracy - Bizarre Animal Collective Group Names”, in BBC, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2021
- A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble.
- I was never one to follow the herd.
- But far more numerous vvas the herd of ſuch, / VVho think too little, and vvho talk too much.1681, [John Dryden], Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] J[acob] T[onson] and are to be sold by W. Davis […], →OCLC, page 17
- A collection of things, especially vehicles.
- Herds of buses spread across the streets.
Verb (1)
herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)
- To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
- Sheep herd on many hills.
- The women bunched up in little droves and let their tongues clack, and the men herded together and passed a jug around and, to tell the truth, let their tongues clack too.1953, Janice Holt Giles, The Kentuckians
- To unite or associate in a herd
- To manage, care for or guard a herd
- He is employed to herd the goats.
- Synonyms:
- wrangle
- To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.
- I’ll herd among his Friends, and ſeem
One of the Number, […]1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, pages 39–40 - "[W]hy, I say, oh stranger, dost thou think that I herd here with barbarians lower than the beasts?"1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
- I’ll herd among his Friends, and ſeem
- To move, or be moved, in a group. (of both animals and people)
- On alighting at the station, we were all herded over the footbridge and through a side exit.
Noun (2)
herd (plural herds)
- Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals.
- Near-synonym: herdsman
- John Dodds, the herd who bode in the place, was standing at the door, and he looked to see who was on the road so late.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
Verb (2)
herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)
- To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
- To form or put into a herd.
- To move or drive a herd.
- I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.
Proper noun capitalized: Herd
Herd
- A surname.
herd meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
herd in Hindi
- any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company
- झुंड jhuṇḍ, गल्ला gallā
herd in Tamil
- மந்தை, கூட்டம்
herd in Marathi
- कळप, कळपाला
herd in Urdu
- any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company
- گلہ galla
More languagesFewer languages
- herd in Bengali
- পশুপালক pośupalok, গোকুল gōkul
- herd in Telugu
- మేపు mēpu
- herd in Malayalam
- പറ്റം, മേയിക്കുക
- herd in Kannada
- ಹಿಂಡು, ಗುಂಪು, ದೊಂಬಿ, ಜನಜಂಗುಳಿ
- herd in Punjabi
- ਇੱਜੜ ijjaṛă
- herd in Sanskrit
- पशव्य paśavyà, कुल kúla
- herd in Assamese
- জাক zak
- herd in Nepali
- झुण्ड, झुन्ड, झुण्डलाई
- herd in Pashto
- رمه ramá
- herd in Arabic
- قَطِيع qaṭīʕ, رَعَى raʕā, رَاعٍ rāʕin
- herd in Malay
- kawanan, sekawanan
- herd in Indonesian
- kawanan
- herd in Persian
- گله gale, رمه rame, فسیله fasile
- herd in Thai
- ฝูง fǔung, หมู่ mùu
- herd in Vietnamese
- đàn, bầy, dồn
- herd in Myanmar
- သိုးအုပ် sui:up
Examples of herd in a sentence
- The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:
- You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.1833 June 8, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “(please specify the chapter)”, in H[enry] N[elson] C[oleridge], editor, Specimens of the Table Talk...
- Any predator that preys on animals that herd or school, has to be able to single out one individual to attack.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 167:
- Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd.2000, Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 38:
Synonyms of herd
Forms of herd
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | herds |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | herds |
| present participle | herding |
| past participle | herded |
| past | herded |
Origin of herd
From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord (“herd, flock; keeping, care, custody”), from Proto-West Germanic *herdu, from Proto-Germanic *herdō (“herd”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerdʰ- (“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Danish hjord, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe (“nest”) and Serbo-Croatian krdo.
From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.
Words formed from herd
- bearherd
- beeherd
- cowherd
- goatherd
- gooseherd
- gosherd
- Hird
- hogherd
- horseherd
- Hurd
- neatherd
- oxherd
- pigherd
- ride herd on
- shepherd
- swanherd
- swineherd
- VAXherd
- bot herd
- flerd
- herd behaviour
- herd boar
- herdbook
- herdboy
- herdess
- herdful
- herdgroom
- herd immunity
- herd instinct
- herdless
- herdlike
- herdman
- herd mentality
- herdowner
- herd path
- herdsboy
- herdswoman
- herdthink
- herdwide
- interherd
- intraherd
- put the herd on someone
- share herd
- share-herd
- subherd
- thin the herd
- thundering herd
- thundering herd problem
- herdable
- herd cats
- herd together
- misherd
- unherded
Phrases with herd
- herd boars
- herd paths
- rode herd on
- rides herd on
- ridden herd on
- riding herd on
- thins the herd
- herd behaviours
- herd immunities
- herd mentalities
- thinned the herd
- thinning the herd
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with herd
35 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about herd
- What does herd mean?
- Herd means a number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
- What is herd in Hindi?
- Herd in Hindi is झुंड (jhuṇḍ), गल्ला (gallā). See Herd meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use herd in a sentence?
- The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.
- What part of speech is herd?
- Herd can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce herd?
- Herd is pronounced /hɜːd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of herd?
- The plural of herd is herds.
Words near herd in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: herd (page history and authors); Herd (page history and authors); herd (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); herd (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); మేపు (Telugu) (page history and authors); herd (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); herd (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਇੱਜੜ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); कुल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); জাক (Assamese) (page history and authors); herd (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-herd.ogg.
Cite this entry: “herd.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/herd. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.