menagerie

[ muh-naj-uh-ree, -nazh- ]

noun

1. a collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition.
2. a place where they are kept or exhibited.
3. an unusual and varied group of people.

menagerie

/ mɪˈnædʒərɪ /

noun

1. a collection of wild animals kept for exhibition
2. the place where such animals are housed

Word History and Origins

Origin of menagerie¹

1705–15; < French: literally, housekeeping. See ménage, -ery

Word History and Origins

Origin of menagerie¹

C18: from French: household management, which formerly included care of domestic animals. See ménage

Example Sentences

To replace that functionality, Google’s engineers have marched out a menagerie of bird-themed acronyms like FLOC, FLEDGE and TURTLEDOVE to describe their proposals for advertising without cookies.

From Washington Post

Plenker is charged with keeping this murderous menagerie alive and well.

From Nautilus

Our menagerie was not likely to be welcome at the city’s inns or hotels.

From Washington Post

Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grandson and namesake of the third president, lamented that Virginia had become “one grand menagerie, where men are reared for the market like oxen for the shambles.”

From Time

Scientists increasingly connect it to our planet’s other special features, such as its stable atmosphere, protective magnetic field and menagerie of complex life.

From Quanta Magazine

On the outside, artists turned the yellow bus into a trippy menagerie of abstract scenes and designs.

From The Daily Beast

A pile of straw right by the menagerie lit on fire, and reached the tent in seconds.

From The Daily Beast

Displayed in a main hall lined with transparent cases, each is like a glass slipper menagerie.

From The Daily Beast

Initially, it seems that oddities are what British journalist Jon Ronson is after in this charming menagerie of essays.

From The Daily Beast

Guangdong has long been known for its menagerie of exotic ingredients.

From The Daily Beast

On the first day of May, Barnum's menagerie came to our town; and Clarence went with his papa to see the animals.

From Project Gutenberg

Rabbah was to be a sheep-fold, Babylon a menagerie of wild beasts—a very specific difference and very improbable.

From Project Gutenberg

Juno lived in a great park, where there was a menagerie, and neither the park nor the menagerie could have done without Juno.

From Project Gutenberg

I saw the man at the menagerie giving them apples,” said Minnie; “but he did not give them any meat all the time I was there.

From Project Gutenberg

That which was in the menagerie of Versailles, which came from Congo, was but seven feet and a half high, in his seventeenth year.

From Project Gutenberg