menagerie

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a collection of wild or unusual animals kept for exhibition

   The traveling menagerie included bears, monkeys, and several exotic birds.

2. 2
   noun

   a varied and sometimes disorderly collection of people or things

   Her desk held a menagerie of clocks, shells, figurines, and old cameras.

Borrowed from French ménagerie, originally household management and then the keeping of domestic or captive animals, from ménager, 'to manage a household.' English extended it figuratively to any diverse collection.

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