menagerie

American  

[muh-naj-uh-ree, -nazh-] / məˈnædʒ ə ri, -ˈnæʒ- /

noun

• menageries
  plural

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.

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menagerie British  

/ mɪˈnædʒərɪ /

noun

1. a collection of wild animals kept for exhibition

2. the place where such animals are housed

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• menageries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of menagerie

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

Explanation

A menagerie (pronounced muh-NA-juh-ree, with NA as in "national") is a collection of live animals that people visit, study, or keep as pets. If you really want a backyard menagerie of farm animals after visiting the petting zoo, take a long sniff and remember what comes with them. Pet lovers can have a menagerie of cats, dogs, and birds or exotic animals such as snakes, ferrets, and piranhas. Zoos have animal collections like the menagerie of sea creatures in the aquarium and the swinging apes in the jungle menagerie. And a science or medical center may have a menagerie of rats for studying behavior. If you want a menagerie, an ant farm is a good one: lots of animals in a container, always working, and never stinking up the place.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

menagerie menageries

He strolled San Francisco’s streets with them to promote his caged menagerie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

The author said he moved to his new home in West Sussex because it had land for his "huge and expanding menagerie", and was quiet.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

On songs like “Slushy” and “Predictable Girl,” she intertwines a menagerie of robotic, spacey sirens with tinges of Jersey club beats and ’90s-influenced R&B chords.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025

Callender’s shop employs more than 80 people and, in the span of just a few years, has added a half-dozen welding robots alongside a menagerie of other automation systems.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025

On our way out of the menagerie, Char said, “Tonight I shall triple the guard around the ogres. And soon I shall catch a centaur and give it to you.”

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

Wealthy rulers throughout history, from Carlos III of Spain to Moctezuma, the ruler of the Aztec Empire, have kept menageries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2024

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, both countries launched veritable menageries aboard rockets, although none both reached orbit and survived the journey before 1960’s Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 12, 2021

Not so Edward Gorey, who was almost as eccentric as his ghoulishly humorous drawings, with their mysterious black-clad ladies, long-suffering children and ominous menageries.

From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2016

Pre–20th century zoos were just menageries full of concrete and cages where people could go and gawk at weird wildlife.

From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2016

The giraffe has become familiar to us, in the menageries, of late years; but half a century ago, its very existence was doubted.

From Illustrative Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom by Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich