The Complete Guide to Title Case: Rules, Examples & Common Mistakes
Title case is the capitalization style most readers associate with headlines, book titles, article headings, and product names. It looks polished and authoritative, but it is also one of the most inconsistently applied conventions in the English language. There is no single universal rulebook — instead, several major style guides each define title case slightly differently. This guide walks through the core rules, the style-guide variations, the most frequent mistakes, and how to apply title case correctly every time.
What Is Title Case?
Title case is a capitalization style in which the first letter of most words in a title or heading is capitalized, while certain "minor" words — short articles, conjunctions, and prepositions — remain lowercase. The exact list of minor words varies between style guides, but the general principle is consistent: capitalize the words that carry meaning, lowercase the small connectors that don't.
This stands in contrast to sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized) and ALL CAPS (every letter capitalized). Title case sits in the middle and is the default for English headlines, book covers, and most marketing copy.
Three ways to capitalize the same headline:
Title case: "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog"
Sentence case: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
ALL CAPS: "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG"
The Core Title Case Rules
Although the major style guides disagree on edge cases, they share a common backbone. If you follow these five rules, you will get title case right in 95% of situations:
- Always capitalize the first word of the title, no matter what it is.
- Always capitalize the last word of the title, even if it would normally be lowercase.
- Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These are the content words.
- Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet), and short prepositions when they appear in the middle of the title.
- Always capitalize the first word after a colon, em dash, or end punctuation inside the title.
How the Major Style Guides Differ
The biggest practical disagreement among style guides is the length threshold for capitalizing prepositions. AP Style says four letters and up. Chicago says five letters and up. APA agrees with AP on four. MLA capitalizes every preposition regardless of length. The table below summarizes the rules side by side.
| Style | Capitalize prepositions of | Capitalize "to" in infinitives? |
|---|---|---|
| AP Style | 4+ letters (With, From, Over) | No |
| Chicago | 5+ letters (Until, Between) | No |
| APA 7th | 4+ letters | No |
| MLA | All prepositions | No |
| New York Times | 4+ letters | Yes |
If you are writing for the web and no specific guide is mandated, AP Style is the most widely understood default. For academic writing, follow the guide your discipline requires — see our APA title case rules guide for full APA details.
Common Title Case Mistakes
Mistake 1: Capitalizing Every Word
The most common error is capitalizing literally every word, including "a," "the," and "of." This produces a clunky look that no major style guide endorses. "How To Train Your Dragon" should be "How to Train Your Dragon" — "to" is a short preposition and is lowercased.
Mistake 2: Forgetting Words After a Colon
After a colon in a title, the first word always gets capitalized, even if it is "a" or "the." "Mindfulness: A Practical Guide" is correct; "Mindfulness: a Practical Guide" is not.
Mistake 3: Lowercasing Long Prepositions
Writers often assume all prepositions are lowercase. They are not. "Between," "Through," "Against," and "Toward" are long enough to be capitalized in nearly every style guide. "Bridges Through Time" is correct; "Bridges through Time" is wrong in AP, APA, and Chicago.
Mistake 4: Lowercasing Forms of "Be"
"Is," "Are," "Was," "Were," "Be," "Been," and "Am" are verbs, not minor words. Capitalize them. "The World Is Flat" — not "The World is Flat."
Mistake 5: Inconsistent Hyphenated Words
For hyphenated compounds, capitalize both parts if both are content words: "Self-Improvement," "Twenty-First Century." If the second element is an article or short preposition, leave it lowercase: "Stick-to-itiveness," "Co-op."
Side-by-side comparisons:
❌ "the lord of the rings" — sentence case, wrong for a title
✅ "The Lord of the Rings" — title case, correct
❌ "How To Win Friends And Influence People" — over-capitalized
✅ "How to Win Friends and Influence People" — correct title case
❌ "Notes from underground" — first word capitalized only
✅ "Notes from Underground" — content words capitalized
When Should You Use Title Case?
Title case is appropriate for book titles, article headlines, chapter titles, section headings, song and album titles, movie and TV show names, product names, brand taglines, and most marketing copy. It is generally not used for body paragraphs, image captions in academic work, or HTML element text that is not a heading. Many digital publications also prefer sentence case for blog headlines because research suggests it scans faster and feels more conversational. See our breakdown of sentence case vs title case for guidance on which to choose.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is "is" capitalized in title case?
Yes. "Is" is a verb, and all verbs are capitalized in title case regardless of length. The same applies to "are," "was," "be," and other forms of the verb "to be."
Should I capitalize "and" in a title?
No. "And" is a coordinating conjunction and stays lowercase in the middle of a title. The only exception is when it is the first or last word.
Is title case the same as headline case?
Yes. "Headline case" is an informal synonym for title case and follows the same rules. Some people use "headline case" specifically to refer to AP Style title case used in news headlines.