Meaning & use
border collie
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A medium-sized dog with a black and white coat, kept especially for herding sheep and known for its intelligence and energy.
Grammar: Countable: one border collie, two border collies. Often used with the before the breed as a whole: the border collie is easy to train.
Patterns
- a border collie
- border collies
- keep a border collie
My uncle has a border collie that helps him move the sheep every morning.
Border collies need a lot of exercise and mental stimulation, so they suit active owners.
The border collie won first prize at the sheepdog trial.
Word forms
| plural | border collies |
|---|
Common combinations
- a border collie puppy
- They brought home a border collie puppy last spring.
- train a border collie
- It takes patience to train a border collie for competitions.
- a border collie cross
- Their dog is a border collie cross, so it's smaller than a purebred.
- the border collie breed
- The border collie breed originated on the border between England and Scotland.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sheepdog
- A general word for any dog that herds sheep; border collie is the specific breed, so use sheepdog when you don't know the breed.
- collie
- A shorter, looser word that can mean a border collie or another collie breed such as the rough collie; it is less precise.
Commonly confused: border collie or collie?
border collie vs collie
Collie by itself often refers to a rough collie, a larger dog with a long coat, while border collie is a distinct breed with a medium coat and strong herding instinct.
Practice
Which sentence uses the plural of 'border collie' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The plural of a noun ending in -ie (like collie) is formed by changing -y to -ies, so 'border collies' is correct. 'Border collie' is singular and cannot follow 'two'; 'collie's' is possessive, not plural; and 'colliees' is not a real spelling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “border collie”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.