Capitalize My Title
Capitalize your title correctly using APA, Chicago, MLA, AP, or sentence case rules. Know exactly which words get capitalized.
How to Capitalize a Title
Title capitalization follows specific rules that most people get wrong. The general principle is simple: capitalize major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns) and lowercase minor words (articles, short prepositions, conjunctions). But the exact rules differ between style guides, which is why this tool lets you choose your style before capitalizing.
Title Capitalization Rules by Style Guide
Chicago Manual of Style (Most Common)
Capitalize all major words. Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so), and prepositions of any length unless they are the first or last word. Always capitalize the first and last word regardless.
APA Style (Academic Papers)
Capitalize all words of four or more letters. Capitalize all major parts of speech. Lowercase articles, short prepositions (three letters or fewer), and short conjunctions. Always capitalize the first word and the first word after a colon.
AP Style (Journalism)
Capitalize all words of four or more letters. Capitalize all verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns. Lowercase articles, prepositions of three letters or fewer, and conjunctions of three letters or fewer. Capitalize the first and last word.
MLA Style (Humanities)
Capitalize all major words. Lowercase articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions unless they are the first or last word. MLA is similar to Chicago but has minor differences in handling compound words and hyphenated terms.
Is "The" Capitalized in a Title?
"The" is capitalized only when it is the first word or the last word of a title. In all other positions, "the" is lowercase in title case because it is an article. This rule is consistent across APA, Chicago, MLA, and AP styles. For example: "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog" — the first "The" is capitalized because it starts the title, while the second "the" is lowercase because it appears mid-title.
Words That Are Not Capitalized in Titles
These common words are typically lowercase in title case (unless they are the first or last word): articles (a, an, the), short prepositions (at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, via), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so), and the infinitive "to" when paired with a verb. All major style guides agree on most of these, though they differ on a few edge cases.