congregation vs throng

congregation

noun
  • Any large gathering of people. 

  • A gathering of faithful in a temple, church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. It can also refer to the people who are present at a devotional service in the building, particularly in contrast to the pastor, minister, imam, rabbi etc. and/or choir, who may be seated apart from the general congregation or lead the service (notably in responsory form). 

  • A Roman Congregation, a main department of the Vatican administration of the Catholic Church. 

  • The act of congregating or collecting together. 

  • A corporate body whose members gather for worship, or the members of such a body. 

  • A flock of various birds, such as plovers or eagles. 

  • The main body of university staff, comprising academics, administrative staff, heads of colleges, etc. 

throng

noun
  • A group of people crowded or gathered closely together. 

  • A group of things; a host or swarm. 

adj
  • Filled with persons or objects; crowded. 

  • Busy; hurried. 

verb
  • To crowd or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings. 

  • To congregate. 

  • To crowd into a place, especially to fill it. 

How often have the words congregation and throng occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )