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Added 8 October 2026

herd

/hɜːd/ noun

In Latin: grex, agmen Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about herd at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans.
A group of wild mammals of one species that remain together: antelope or elephants or seals or whales or zebra.
A crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things.
his brilliance raised him above the ruck

verb

Cause to herd, drive, or crowd together.
We herded the children into a spare classroom
Move together, like a herd.
Keep, move, or drive animals.
Who will be herding the cattle when the cowboy dies?

Origin

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 Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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