What Is Title Case?

Title case is a capitalization style where the first letter of each significant word in a title or heading is capitalized, while less important words like articles and prepositions are left in lowercase. This formatting convention helps create a formal, consistent appearance that draws attention to the key terms.

Example

“How to Develop a Successful Marketing Strategy for Your Small Business”

Here, the major words like “Develop,” “Successful,” “Marketing,” “Strategy,” and “Small Business” are capitalized, while shorter words like “to,” “a,” “for,” and “Your” remain in lowercase.

The title case convention helps make titles and headings more visually striking and emphasizes the main concepts being conveyed. It’s a widely recognized formatting style for published works, websites, presentations, and other professional contexts.

What to capitalize in title case

In the title case capitalization style, the guiding principle is to capitalize the important, meaningful words while leaving less significant words in lowercase. Minor words such as prepositions (with fewer than 4 letters), articles, and coordinating conjunctions are left in lowercase.

Major words that are capitalized include:

• The first word of the title or heading.
• All nouns (e.g., “Book”, “Cat”, “Mountain”).
• All pronouns (e.g., “She”, “He”, “Their”).
• All verbs (e.g., “Run”, “Eat”, “Jump”).
• All adjectives (e.g., “Big”, “Small”, “Bright”).
• All adverbs (e.g., “Quickly”, “Slowly”, “Quietly”).

Example: Minor and major words in title case

Here is an example that demonstrates the distinction between minor and major words in title case:

How to Write the Perfect Résumé for Your Dream Job

In this title case example, here’s how the major and minor words are capitalized:

Capitalization	Words
Major words (capitalized)	How Write Perfect Résumé Dream Job
Minor words (lowercase)	to the for your

The key points are:

• The first and last words (“How” and “Job”) are capitalized.
• Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are considered major words and are capitalized.
• Articles (“the”), prepositions (“for”), and conjunctions (“to”) are treated as minor words and kept lowercase.

When minor words are the first word of the title, they are capitalized.

The Art of Effective Communication

In this title case example, the minor word “The” is capitalized, even though it’s normally a lowercase word because it’s the first word in the title.

Title case capitalization follows specific guidelines, but the conventions can vary slightly between different style guides (like MLA Style, Chicago, or APA Style), particularly around the capitalization of:

• Prepositions
• Coordinating conjunctions (e.g. “and”, “but”, “or”)
• Subordinating conjunctions
• The final word in a title

Prepositions

Different style guides have varying rules when it comes to capitalizing prepositions in titles and headings:

• MLA style uses lowercase for all prepositions, regardless of the word length.
• APA and AP styles, on the other hand, only use lowercase for shorter prepositions (up to 3 letters).

This difference can be seen in examples:

• APA/AP/AMA: Journey To the Center of the Earth is a classic science fiction novel.
• MLA/Chicago: Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic science fiction novel.

Coordinating conjunctions (e.g., “and”, “but”, “or”)

In English, there are seven common coordinating conjunctions that can be remembered using the acronym “FANBOYS” – for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

When it comes to title case formatting, most major style guides, such as APA, AP, AMA, and MLA, use lowercase for all seven of these coordinating conjunctions.

However, Chicago style is an exception – it uses lowercase for most of the FANBOYS words but capitalizes the conjunctions “yet” and “so” when they appear in a title.

For example:

• APA/AP/AMA/MLA: Storms and Rainbows: Life’s Ups and Downs
• Chicago: Storms And Rainbows: Life’s Ups And Downs

Subordinating conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are words that introduce a subordinate clause and show the relationship between the subordinate clause and the main clause. When it comes to title case formatting, style guides have varying approaches to capitalizing subordinating conjunctions.

For example:

• AP/APA: The Reason Why the Sky is Blue
• AMA/MLA: The Reason Why the Sky is Blue
• Chicago: The Reason why the Sky is Blue

The final word in a title

Some style guides, such as AP/APA and AMA/MLA, have a convention of always capitalizing the last word in a title, regardless of whether it is a major word or a subordinating conjunction.

For example:

• MLA/Chicago/AP: The Road Not Taken
• AMA/APA: The Road Not taken

The key difference is that some styles (MLA/Chicago/AP) prioritize capitalizing the final word, even if it’s a less significant part of speech, while other styles (AMA/APA) lowercase the final word if it’s a subordinate term like a verb.

Title case vs. sentence case

Title case is a capitalization style where the first letter of most words is capitalized. This includes nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and other parts of speech. The exception is for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions, which are typically lowercased unless they are the first or last word in the title.

Sentence case is a capitalization style where only the first word of a title or heading is capitalized, as if it were the start of a regular sentence. All other words, including proper nouns, are lowercased.

The choice between title case and sentence case often depends on the specific style guide or organizational preferences being followed. 

Feature	Title Case	Sentence Case
Capitalization	Most words are capitalized (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.)	Only the first word is capitalized
Prepositions, Articles, Conjunctions	Typically lowercased (unless they are the first or last word)	Lowercased
Proper Nouns	Capitalized	Capitalized
Common Usage	Titles, headings, subheadings	Captions, labels, body text
Examples	“How to Bake the Perfect Cake”	“How to bake the perfect cake”

Title case converter

A title case converter is a tool that can automatically transform text from sentence case to title case formatting.

Here’s how a title case converter works:

• Capitalize the First Letter of Each Word: The converter will capitalize the first letter of each word in the title, except for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions (unless they are the first or last word).
• Preserve Capitalization of Proper Nouns: If the title contains proper nouns, like names or places, the converter will maintain the capitalization of those words.
• Lowercase Prepositions, Articles, and Conjunctions: Words like “the,” “a,” “an,” “and,” “but,” “or,” “for,” “nor,” “so,” “yet,” etc. will be lowercased, unless they are the first or last word in the title.

Here is an example of how a title case converter would transform a sentence case title:

• Sentence case title: “the art of baking delicious cakes”

After running this through a title case converter, the result would be:

• Title case: “The Art of Baking Delicious Cakes”

Here’s how the title case converter handles the capitalization:

• “The” – Capitalized as the first word
• “Art” – Capitalized as a noun
• “of” – Lowercased as a preposition
• “Baking” – Capitalized as a verb
• “Delicious” – Capitalized as an adjective
• “Cakes” – Capitalized as a noun

The converter has applied the standard title case rules, capitalizing the first letter of each major word, while keeping prepositions like “of” in lowercase.

Worksheet: Title case

Let’s work through a title case worksheet together. I’ll provide some sample sentences in sentence case, and you can practice converting them to title case formatting.

1. the importance of getting enough sleep
2. how to make a delicious homemade pizza
3. the history of the roman empire
4. 10 tips for improving productivity at work
5. a review of the latest smartphone models
6. why exercise is crucial for good health
7. the benefits of practicing mindfulness meditation
8. top 5 destinations for your next vacation
9. understanding the basics of web development
10. strategies for managing stress in everyday life

Go ahead and convert each of these sentence case titles to title case, following the standard capitalization conventions. I’ll provide the title case versions after you’ve had a chance to work through them.

Answers

Practice Questions	Title Case Answers	Explanation
1. the importance of getting enough sleep	The Importance of Getting Enough Sleep	The first letter of each major word is capitalized, while prepositions like “of” are lowercased.
2. how to make a delicious homemade pizza	How to Make a Delicious Homemade Pizza	Verbs like “make” are capitalized, and “a” is lowercased as an article.
3. the history of the roman empire	The History of the Roman Empire	Proper nouns like “Roman Empire” are capitalized.
4. 10 tips for improving productivity at work	10 Tips for Improving Productivity at Work	Numbers are kept as-is, and the preposition “for” is lowercased.
5. a review of the latest smartphone models	A Review of the Latest Smartphone Models	“A” is lowercased as an article, and “of” is lowercased as a preposition.
6. why exercise is crucial for good health	Why Exercise Is Crucial for Good Health	The conjunction “for” is lowercased.
7. the benefits of practicing mindfulness meditation	The Benefits of Practicing Mindfulness Meditation	The preposition “of” is lowercased.
8. top 5 destinations for your next vacation	Top 5 Destinations for Your Next Vacation	The preposition “for” is lowercased.
9. understanding the basics of web development	Understanding the Basics of Web Development	The gerund “Understanding” is capitalized.
10. strategies for managing stress in everyday life	Strategies for Managing Stress in Everyday Life	The preposition “for” is lowercased.