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Title Case

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Navigating Title Capitalization Styles

Title capitalization, a cornerstone of English language formatting, varies across different style guides, each prescribing its own set of rules for capitalizing words in titles and headings. Understanding these variations is crucial for adhering to the appropriate editorial standards. Below, we detail the rules for the most widely recognized styles.

Our Title Case tool streamlines the process of applying these rules, supporting styles such as AP, APA, Chicago, MLA, Wikipedia, and more, with options for customization to suit your specific requirements.

RuleChicagoAPAMLAAPBluebookAMANY TimesWikipedia
Capitalize Major Words
Capitalize First & Last Word
Lowercase Articles, Conjunctions, Prepositions
Lowercase “to” in Infinitives
Special Rules for Hyphenated Words
Capitalize Words with Four or More Letters
Lowercase Minor Words Unless First or After Colon
Capitalize “to” in Infinitives (AP)
Capitalize Second Word in Hyphenated Compound if Both Words Are Equal and not suffixes or prefixes
Capitalize Genus but Not Species Epithet
Lowercase First Non-Greek Letter After a Capital Greek Letter
Capitalize First Non-Greek Letter After a Lowercase Greek Letter

Chicago Manual of Style

A keystone in journalism and academic writing, Chicago style emphasizes:

  1. Capitalization of both the first and last words.
  2. Major parts of speech (e.g., nouns, verbs) are capitalized.
  3. Lowercase for articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
  4. The 'to' in infinitives and secondary words in hyphenated prefixes remain lowercase.

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

Essential for scholarly articles, APA style mandates:

  1. Capitalization of the first word in titles and subtitles.
  2. All major words, including the second part of hyphenated major words, are capitalized.
  3. Words with four or more letters are capitalized.

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

Favored in literary and humanities circles, MLA style specifies:

  1. Capitalizing the first word of titles and subtitles.
  2. All major words in titles are capitalized.
  3. Articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions are not capitalized.
  4. The second part of hyphenated words and 'to' in infinitives remain lowercase.

AP (Associated Press) Style

Predominantly used in news writing, AP style includes:

  1. Capitalizing the first and last word.
  2. Capitalizing nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
  3. Lowercasing articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
  4. Lowercasing the second word in a compound modifier.
  5. Words with four or more letters are capitalized.
  6. Both parts of a hyphenated word are capitalized (updated rule).
  7. Capitalizing 'to' in infinitives.

Bluebook Style

A cornerstone for legal writing, Bluebook style guidelines include:

  1. Capitalizing the first and last word.
  2. Capitalizing nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
  3. Articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions of four letters or fewer are lowercase.
  4. Lowercasing “to” in the infinitive form.

AMA (American Medical Association) Style

Widely used in scientific publications, AMA style requires:

  1. Capitalizing the first and last word of titles and subtitles.
  2. Major words, including nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions, are capitalized.
  3. Articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions of four letters or fewer are lowercase.
  4. Lowercase the second word in a hyphenated compound when it functions as a prefix or suffix or forms part of a single word.
  5. Capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound when they are of equal importance and are not prefixes or suffixes.
  6. Special rules for capitalizing after Greek letters and taxonomic nomenclature.

NY Times Style

Employed by the NY Times and similar publications, this style's rules include:

  1. Capitalizing major words, including nouns, pronouns, verbs.
  2. The first and the last word of any title are always capitalized.
  3. Articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions remain in lowercase.

Wikipedia Style

Adhered to by Wikipedia editors, this style features:

  1. Capitalization of major words, including nouns, pronouns, verbs.
  2. The first and the last word of any title are always capitalized.
  3. Indefinite and definite articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions are in lowercase.
  4. Prepositions with five letters or more are capitalized.
  5. The word “to” in infinitives is capitalized.
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