As we reported in our occasional e-newsletter, the recent discovery of dozens of previously unknown black holes has stargazers wondering: What’s the collective noun for a cluster of black holes? Our readers obliged with some clever suggestions, including a baffle of black holes, a sink of black holes, a density of black holes, a vacancy of black holes, and perhaps most poignantly, a loneliness of black holes. Maybe just the internet? This is part of a complete episode.
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Proposed addition to your list of collective terms for a group of black holes: loculus. I first encountered this word when I had a cyst removed; the doctor dictated in his notes that the cyst was “loculated”, which appears to come from the Latin “locus” for “place”, and I took this to mean that the cyst in question was spongey in texture, a lot of little compartments instead of one big one.