Title case rules: which words to capitalize in a headline
Title case is the capitalization style used for headlines, book titles, article titles and headings: the important words start with a capital letter and some short words stay lowercase. Everyone agrees on the basic idea. The arguments start with the small words.
The rules every style agrees on
- Capitalize the first and last word of the title, whatever they are.
- Capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, including short ones such as Is, Be, It, His and So when it is used as an adverb.
- Lowercase articles (a, an, the) unless they come first or last.
- Capitalize the first word after a colon in a title, as in “Dune: The Graphic Novel”.
Where the style guides differ
The disagreement is mostly about prepositions (in, with, about, between) and conjunctions (and, but, because).
- Chicago Manual of Style (books and much of publishing) lowercases prepositions regardless of length, so “Walking through the Forest” and “A Guide for Travelers”. It also lowercases and, but, for, or and nor.
- AP style (news) capitalizes any word of four or more letters, so “Walking Through the Forest” but “A Guide for Travelers”.
- APA style (academic papers in psychology and the social sciences) also capitalizes every word of four letters or more, including prepositions like With and From.
- MLA style (humanities) lowercases prepositions and coordinating conjunctions whatever their length, much like Chicago.
If you are writing for a publication, school or employer with a house style, follow it. If you aren’t, pick one approach and apply it consistently: inconsistency is what readers notice.
Examples
- the lord of the rings → The Lord of the Rings (every style)
- a guide to living with less → A Guide to Living with Less (Chicago) or A Guide to Living With Less (AP, APA)
- what it is and why it matters → What It Is and Why It Matters: It and Is are short but are a pronoun and a verb, so they are capitalized.
Hyphenated words
Style guides vary here too, but a common approach is to capitalize each main part of a hyphenated compound: “State-of-the-Art Design”, “Self-Driving Cars”, “Long-Term Plans”. Short words inside the compound, such as of and the, stay lowercase. Wordformat’s Title Case Converter treats each part of a hyphenated word as its own word in this way.
Title case vs sentence case
Many websites and apps now use sentence case for headings instead: only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized, as in “How to write a good headline”. It is easier to read, avoids the small-word debate entirely and is recommended by several major style guides for user interfaces. Title case still dominates for book, film and song titles and in many newspapers and academic reference lists.
Converting text quickly
- Paste your headline into the Title Case Converter. It capitalizes the important words and keeps articles, short conjunctions and short prepositions lowercase, following the general approach of Chicago style.
- Check the result against your style guide, especially prepositions of four letters or more if you follow AP or APA.
- Make sure proper nouns and brand names that use unusual capitalization, such as iPhone or eBay, came through as intended.
Want sentence case instead? Use the Sentence Case Converter, then re-capitalize any proper nouns.