Trying to come up with a list of vague words for different "kinds of animals". Help? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I'm fiddling with a card game concept, and a very important part of it is creatures interacting with other specific kinds of creatures. This necessarily means I need to come up with lots of type names that are descriptive but vague enough to shove literally anything in them. Here's some good examples: "bug" containing ants, shrimps, pillbugs, bees, and literally anything that could be called a creepy crawly; "fish" containing everything from salmon to sharks to eels to octopi; "trees" containing all the stuff you are thinking of as well as those precambrian 6-foot fungi pillars; and "cats" including housecats, big cats, cheetah, and carcals.

And that's everything I can think of that would be useful. You see my problem? I know there are other casual-usage words for big categories of critters, but my grasp of the Enlgish language is fickle and leaves me whenever it is most inconvenient. If there is a list I could work from, that would be very helpful. Otherwise, volunteer as many words as you think would be useful.

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[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

You want broad sweeping categories? Maybe categorize by behaviour?

Crawlers Slitherers Swimmers Flyers Stationary creatures Sunlight eaters Carnivores Plant eaters Omnivores

I think decide what your groups actually are first, then label. So a fish in this list would be swimming carnivore.

this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024

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