Title case tells you which words to capitalise in a headline. Major words get capitals. Some minor words stay lowercased. The first and last word of a title are always capitalised. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) and short prepositions are usually lowercased unless they sit first or last. Different style guides draw the line in different places. Here is how AP, Chicago and APA handle it, and when to choose sentence case instead.

What Title Case is and Why it Matters

Title case is a capitalisation style for headlines, article titles and chapter headings. It makes titles stand out and look consistent. Without a clear rule set, you capitalise randomly. That confuses readers and looks unprofessional. Style guides such as AP, Chicago and APA each have their own version. Which one you use depends on the publication or context you are writing for.

AP Style Title Case

AP style, used by many news outlets, follows a simple length rule: capitalise words of four or more letters. This includes prepositions such as with and from. Shorter words are lowercased unless they are the first or last word. Articles, coordinating conjunctions and prepositions of three letters or fewer all stay low. For example, in the headline “Walking With the Wolves,” With is capitalised because it has four letters. The is lowercased because it has three letters and is not first or last.

Chicago Style Title Case

Chicago style takes a different approach. Since its 18th edition (2024), it lowercases prepositions of four letters or fewer and capitalises longer ones. So in Chicago, “Walking With the Wolves” becomes “Walking with the Wolves” when with appears in the middle. Coordinating conjunctions and articles are also lowercased unless first or last. Chicago style is common in book publishing and academic writing. If your publisher follows the Chicago Manual of Style, note that longer prepositions like between, through or without are now capitalised.

APA Style Title Case

APA style, used in social sciences, also capitalises words of four or more letters. This makes it similar to AP style for longer words. APA has specific rules for hyphenated compounds and other edge cases. For most headlines, APA and AP will agree on the capitalisation of longer prepositions. The main difference is context: APA is applied to paper titles and section headings within academic documents, while AP governs news headlines. Both require the first and last word to be capitalised.

Sentence Case vs Title Case

Sentence case capitalises only the first word and proper nouns. Many websites use sentence case for article titles, and APA reference titles are written in sentence case. When should you use sentence case instead of title case? Use it when the publication style guide requires it, when writing a subtitle that follows a title-case headline, or when the medium is informal (a blog post or social media). Sentence case is easier to write because you never need to decide which words are major or minor.

When to Choose Sentence Case

  • The publication or client specifies sentence case.
  • You are writing a reference list entry in APA style.
  • The title is very long and title case would look cluttered.
  • You want a modern, less formal appearance.

Common Exceptions and Tricky Words

Even with clear rules, some words cause confusion.

Prepositions That Look Like Other Parts of Speech

Words like up, in and on can also function as adverbs or particles. In AP style, a two-letter word like up is lowercased when used as a preposition, but capitalised when used as an adverb (e.g., “Look Up the Word”). In Chicago, it would be lowercased in both cases unless first or last.

Coordinating Conjunctions

The words and, but, or and nor are almost always lowercased in title case, regardless of style, unless they are the first or last word. Yet and so are sometimes treated as coordinating conjunctions as well, so check your style guide.

Using Automatic Tools and Checking Your Work

Automatic title case tools apply capitalisation mechanically. Check short words against your chosen style. A tool might capitalise every word of four letters or more, which works for AP but not for Chicago. If you use an automatic converter, run a second pass to adjust prepositions and conjunctions according to your style guide. Manual review is especially important for titles that contain hyphenated compounds, quoted phrases or proper nouns.

How to Apply Title Case Manually

  1. Capitalise the first and last word of the title.
  2. Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and subordinating conjunctions (e.g., because, although).
  3. Lowercase articles (a, an, the) unless they are first or last.
  4. Lowercase coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) unless first or last.
  5. For prepositions, apply your chosen style: AP and APA capitalise if four or more letters; Chicago capitalises only those of five or more letters.