Collective adjectives act as nouns, each of which describes a group of people who share the same or similar characteristics. Collective adjectives differ from collective nouns although both refer to groups of people: examples of collective nouns are band of musicians, gang of thieves, panel of experts, troupe of dancers; and examples of collective adjectives are the blind, the injured, the old, the young.
Collective adjectives must follow the definite article the (the homeless) and, because they are always treated as plural, take a plural verb (The injured are airlifted to the nearest hospital).
Some common collective adjectives are:
the aged | the hardworking | the oppressed |
the blind | the healthy | the poor |
the dead | the homeless | the rich |
the deaf | the injured | the rural poor |
the departed | the innocent | the sick |
the deprived | the intelligent | the strong |
the disabled | the living | the underprivileged |
the downtrodden | the lonely | the unemployed |
the dumb | the meek | the uninformed |
the elderly | the mentally challenged | the weak |
the guilty | the middle-aged | the young |
the handicapped | the old | the young at heart |