A group of cats is referred to as a "clowder" or a "glaring",[19] a male cat is called a "tom" or "tomcat"[20] (or a "gib",[21] if neutered), an unaltered female is called a "queen",[22] and a prepubescent juvenile is referred to as a "kitten". Although spayed females have no commonly used name, in some rare instances, an immature or spayed female is referred to as a "molly".[citation needed] The male progenitor of a cat, especially a pedigreed cat, is its "sire",[23] and its female progenitor is its "dam".[24] In Early Modern English, the word 'kitten' was interchangeable with the now-obsolete word 'catling'.[25]
A pedigreed cat is one whose ancestry is recorded by a cat fancier organization. A purebred cat is one whose ancestry contains only individuals of the same breed. Many pedigreed and especially purebred cats are exhibited as show cats. Cats of unrecorded, mixed ancestry are referred to as domestic short-haired or domestic long-haired cats, by coat type, or