Title Case Rules Explained: Which Words Get Capitalized?
Title case sounds simple until you hit prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. Here's a full breakdown of the rules — and why different style guides disagree.
Published April 20, 2025 · By Sudip Bhowmick
Title case sounds simple — just capitalize every word, right? But anyone who has tried to apply it consistently quickly runs into exceptions: prepositions, articles, conjunctions, hyphenated compounds, short words. What actually makes a word 'major enough' to be capitalized in a title? The answer depends on which style guide you're following — and there are several that disagree with each other.
What Is Title Case?
Title case is a capitalization style where the first letter of each major word in a heading or title is capitalized, while minor words (articles, short prepositions, coordinating conjunctions) are left lowercase. It is used for book titles, article headlines, film titles, blog post headings, product names, and page titles.
Title case signals that something is a formal name or title, not a regular sentence. Compare 'How to build a website' (sentence case) with 'How to Build a Website' (title case). The second reads more like a published article headline.
Words That Are Always Capitalized
These word types are capitalized in title case under virtually every style guide:
- ▸The first and last word of the title — always, regardless of what type of word it is
- ▸Nouns: 'The Old Man and the Sea'
- ▸Verbs (including short ones like Is, Are, Was, Be, Do): 'Why She Is the Best'
- ▸Adjectives and adverbs: 'The Quick Brown Fox'
- ▸Pronouns (he, she, it, they): 'The Story of It All'
- ▸Proper nouns and brand names: 'The Paris Agreement', 'JavaScript for Beginners'
A common mistake is leaving 'is' and 'are' lowercase because they feel small. They are verbs — they are always capitalized in title case.
Words That Are Usually Lowercase
These word categories are lowercase in most title case style guides, unless they appear as the first or last word of the title:
- ▸Articles: a, an, the
- ▸Short prepositions (under 4 letters): in, on, at, by, to, for, of, up, via
- ▸Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, yet, so, for
'The Cat in the Hat' — 'in' and 'the' (second instance) are lowercase. 'Gone with the Wind' — 'with' and 'the' are lowercase. But 'The End of the Affair' — 'The' is capitalized because it's the first word.
Where Style Guides Disagree
The disagreement between style guides centers on longer prepositions and subordinating conjunctions. Here's how the major guides handle them:
AP Style (Associated Press): Capitalize prepositions of four or more letters. So 'With', 'From', 'Into', 'Over', 'Through', 'Between' are capitalized. Short ones (in, on, at, by) stay lowercase.
Chicago Manual of Style: Lowercase all prepositions regardless of length. 'Throughout', 'Beyond', and 'Between' stay lowercase, unlike in AP Style.
APA Style: Capitalize all words of four or more letters. This means conjunctions and prepositions that are four+ letters get capitalized — 'With', 'From', 'That', 'When', 'While'.
For most web content — blog posts, landing pages, social media — following a simplified rule is perfectly acceptable: capitalize everything except articles (a, an, the), short prepositions (in, on, at, by, for, of, to), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor).
Special Cases and Edge Scenarios
Hyphenated words: Most guides say to capitalize each part of a hyphenated compound in a title. 'Self-Aware', 'Well-Written', 'Twenty-One'. The Chicago Manual of Style has specific rules about which part to capitalize based on the type of compound, but for general use, capitalize both parts.
'To' in infinitives: AP Style says lowercase; Chicago Manual says lowercase too. 'How to Write Better' — 'to' is lowercase because it's part of an infinitive.
The word 'it': Always capitalize. 'It' is a pronoun, not an article. 'Getting Over It', not 'Getting Over it'.
Brand names and programming terms: Always use the official capitalization regardless of position — 'JavaScript', 'iPhone', 'GitHub', 'camelCase'.
Conclusion
For most purposes — blog posts, website headings, and marketing copy — a simple rule covers the majority of cases: capitalize everything except articles (a, an, the), short prepositions (in, on, at, by, for, of), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor). Always capitalize the first and last word no matter what. For formal publishing, identify which style guide your organization follows and apply it consistently throughout.
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