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Capitalize My Title

Type a title and choose a style guide. The tool capitalizes the main words and lowercases the short ones that style leaves down.

Runs in your browser. Your text is not sent to a server. Sources: APA, Chicago, MLA Updated

Style guide
43 characters
43 characters

Title case rules in APA, AP, Chicago and MLA

These are the rules as this tool applies them. The lowercase lists are the complete lists the tool uses; a word that is not on a style's list is capitalized.

StyleRuleWords kept lowercase
APA
Publication Manual, 7th edition		Capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, dash or end punctuation, and every word of four letters or more. Lowercase articles and conjunctions and prepositions of three letters or fewer.a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, if, in, nor, of, off, on, or, per, so, the, to, up, via, yet
AP
AP Stylebook, composition titles		Capitalize the first and last word and every word of four letters or more. Lowercase articles, conjunctions and prepositions of three letters or fewer.a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, if, in, nor, of, off, on, or, per, so, the, to, up, via, yet
Chicago
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition		Capitalize the first and last word. Lowercase articles, the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor, the words to and as, and prepositions of four letters or fewer. Prepositions of five letters or more are capitalized.a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, from, in, into, nor, of, off, on, onto, or, over, per, the, to, up, upon, via, with
MLA
MLA Handbook, 9th edition		Capitalize the first and last word. Lowercase articles, prepositions of any length, the coordinating conjunctions and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, and the to in infinitives.a, about, above, across, against, along, among, an, and, around, as, at, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, but, by, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, nor, of, off, on, onto, or, outside, over, per, so, the, through, throughout, to, toward, towards, under, underneath, up, upon, via, with, within, without, yet

The AP Stylebook is available by subscription only, so the AP rule above could not be checked against the current edition. Treat AP results as a first draft.

Title case example: one title, four styles

The same title, a room with a view: the making of a classic, in each style:

  • APA: A Room With a View: The Making of a Classic
  • AP: A Room With a View: The Making of a Classic
  • Chicago: A Room with a View: The Making of a Classic
  • MLA: A Room with a View: The Making of a Classic

"With" has four letters, so APA and AP capitalize it. Chicago and MLA treat it as a preposition and leave it lowercase. Every style capitalizes "The" after the colon, because the first word of a subtitle counts as a first word.

The title "a room with a view: the making of a classic" capitalized in four styles: APA and AP write "A Room With a View: The Making of a Classic", while Chicago and MLA keep "with" in lowercase.
"With" has four letters: APA and AP capitalize it by length, Chicago and MLA lowercase it as a preposition.

Hyphens, colons and acronyms in title case

  • First and last word. The first word is always capitalized. AP, Chicago and MLA also capitalize the last word; APA does not ask for that.
  • After a colon or dash. The first word after a colon, an em dash, a spaced dash or end punctuation is capitalized.
  • Hyphenated words. The first part is capitalized and the other parts follow the normal rule: State-of-the-Art Design.
  • Names and acronyms. A word you type with a capital inside it keeps its spelling: A Review of iPhone Apps for NASA. A title typed entirely in capitals is lowercased first.
  • Several titles. Each line is treated as its own title.

Phrasal verbs and other title case exceptions

The style guides decide by part of speech, and a word list cannot do that. Three cases need your eye:

  • Phrasal verbs. In How to Set Up a Router, "Up" belongs to the verb and is capitalized in every style. The tool sees a preposition and writes "up".
  • Words that are sometimes conjunctions. After, before, until and since are capitalized here in every style, although MLA lowercases them when they are used as prepositions.
  • Proper nouns typed in lowercase. "paris" becomes "Paris" only because every main word is capitalized; "nasa" becomes "Nasa".

For a plain Title Case without a style guide, or for UPPER CASE and lower case, use Convert Case. To check that a headline fits a character limit, paste it into the letter counter, and to put a list of titles in order, use the alphabetical order generator.

Capitalize My Title: FAQ

Which words are not capitalized in a title?
In all four styles: the articles a, an and the, short conjunctions such as and, but and or, and short prepositions such as of, in, on and to, unless one of them is the first word. The styles differ on longer prepositions and on the last word; the table on this page lists the exact words.
Is "is" capitalized in a title?
Yes. Is, are, be and was are verbs, and every style capitalizes verbs however short they are. The same goes for short pronouns such as it, he and my.
Is "with" capitalized in a title?
In APA and AP style, yes, because it has four letters. In Chicago and MLA style it stays lowercase, because it is a preposition: A Room with a View.
What changed in the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style?
Prepositions of five letters or more are now capitalized in titles, so Chicago writes Much Ado About Nothing. Shorter prepositions such as with, from and over stay lowercase. This tool follows the 18th edition.
Why did the tool lowercase a word that should be capitalized?
It works from word lists and cannot read grammar. A word like up or over is lowercased as a preposition even when it is part of a verb (Look Up, Take Over), where the style guides capitalize it. Check those by hand.

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