Title case rules: which words to capitalise in a headline
How title case works, which small words stay lowercase, how AP, APA and Chicago styles differ, and when sentence case is the better choice.
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In title case, capitalise the first and last words and every major word (nouns, verbs including “is”, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns), and keep short articles, conjunctions and prepositions such as a, the, and, of and to in lower case. To do it automatically, convert text to title case with the Case Converter.
Sentence case and title case side by side
| Sentence case | Title case |
|---|---|
| The rise and fall of the Roman Empire | The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire |
| A beginner's guide to the stars | A Beginner's Guide to the Stars |
| What is it for? | What Is It For? |
| Ten tips for writing better emails | Ten Tips for Writing Better Emails |
| How to save money on groceries | How to Save Money on Groceries |
| Why the sky is blue | Why the Sky Is Blue |
“The Rise And Fall Of The House” looks wrong to most readers, and “The Rise and Fall of the House” looks right. The difference is title case, which capitalises the important words of a heading and leaves the small ones alone.
The basic rules
- Capitalise the first and last word, whatever they are.
- Capitalise nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns.
- Lowercase short articles (a, an, the), short conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) and short prepositions (in, on, at, of, to, by, for) — unless they are the first or last word.
So: “How to Fill In a Form”, “A Guide to the Stars”, “What Is It For?” — note that “Is” is a verb and “For” is the last word, so both are capitalised.
Where style guides disagree
The main difference is how they treat longer small words:
- Chicago style lowercases prepositions whatever their length: “Walking through the Woods”.
- AP and APA styles capitalise words of four letters or more, including prepositions: “Walking Through the Woods”.
Neither is wrong. Pick the style your publication, school or company uses and apply it consistently; inconsistency is what readers notice.
Convert text step by step
- Paste your headline or list of headings into the Case Converter.
- Choose Title Case. The result appears immediately.
- Read it through and adjust any words the rules cannot know about.
- Copy the result.
Title case here follows publishing convention using a standard list of minor words, so you get “The Rise and Fall of the House” rather than capitalising every word. The text is converted in your browser and not sent anywhere.
What to check by hand
- Names and brands with unusual capitals, such as iPhone or eBay.
- Acronyms such as NASA, PDF or UK, which should stay in capitals.
- Words that change role. “Up” is capitalised in “Set Up Your Account”, where it is part of the verb, but often lowercase as a preposition.
- Hyphenated words, where styles differ on capitalising the second part.
Title case or sentence case?
Sentence case capitalises only the first word and proper nouns: “The rise and fall of the house”. Many websites, apps and news organisations now prefer it for headings, because it is easier to read, avoids style-guide arguments and is easier to apply consistently. Title case remains standard for book titles, many academic references and some publications. Whichever you choose, use it throughout.
Other cases
The same converter switches between twelve cases, including UPPER, lower and sentence case for prose, and camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case and kebab-case for code. Sentence case is the quickest fix for text that arrived in all capitals.
Headline length
Headlines for web pages and articles are best kept short enough to show in full in search results — roughly 50–60 characters. The Word Counter counts characters as well as words.