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murmuration

noun
/ˌmɝməˈɹeɪʃən/US/ˌmɜːməˈɹeɪʃən/UK

Etymology

1350–1400; Medieval Latin murmuratio (“murmuring, grumbling”). The “flock of starlings” sense is probably derived from the sound of the very large groups that starlings form at dusk.

  1. borrowed from murmuratio

Definitions

  1. An act or instance of murmuring.

  2. A flock of starlings, in particular when swarming in swirling patterns.

    • "Oh! I wasted most of my morning crawling to a murmuration of starlings, which I foolishly mistook for congregation of plover."
    • The same dynamics can be seen in starlings: On clear winter evenings, murmurations of the tiny blackish birds gather in Rome’s sunset skies, wheeling about like rustling cloth.
    • Professor Anne Goodenough, an applied ecologist at the University of Gloucestershire who led the research, said: ‘It appears murmuration has become the norm – a general way for the starlings to stay safe from predators.’

  3. An emergent order in a multi-agent social system.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for murmuration. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA