Quick answer (TL;DR)Paste a title, pick a style guide (AP, APA, MLA, Chicago, NYT, Wikipedia), and get the correct capitalization. The tool follows each guide's rules for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. Always proofread - house styles vary.
🎯 How to use
- Paste or type your title in the input box.
- Pick the style guide your publication uses: AP Style (most journalism), APA (psychology, social sciences), MLA (humanities), Chicago (book publishing), NYT, Wikipedia, or basic Sentence / UPPER / lower.
- The result updates instantly. Click 📋 Copy result to send it to your clipboard.
- Always proofread - capitalization rules have edge cases (proper nouns, brand names, hyphenated compounds) that no tool can fully automate.
About this tool
A title case converter rewrites a headline or title so that the right words are capitalised and the right words stay lowercase, following the documented rules of a chosen style guide. It removes the guesswork from questions like whether "of" or "is" should be capital.
Title case is the convention of capitalising the principal words of a heading while leaving minor words lowercase. It is not the same as simply capitalising every word, and it is not sentence case (where only the first word and proper nouns are capital). The major guides each codify the rules slightly differently: AP Style for newspapers and magazines, Chicago Manual of Style for book publishing, APA for psychology and the social sciences, and MLA for literature and the humanities. Wikipedia and most web headlines use sentence case instead. This tool applies a guide's documented rules consistently so your headings match house style every time.
How it works
The converter splits the text into words, then decides each word's case from its position and part of speech. The first and last word are always capitalised; minor words in the middle are lowercased; everything else is capitalised.
For each word at index i in a title of N words:
if i == 0 or i == N-1: Capitalise // first and last always
else if word in MINOR_SET: lowercase
else: Capitalise
MINOR_SET = articles (a, an, the)
+ coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so)
+ short prepositions (in, on, at, by, of, to, up, vs)
- First and last word = always capitalised, overriding every other rule.
- Major words = nouns, verbs (including is, are, was), adjectives, adverbs, pronouns; always capitalised.
- Minor words = articles, coordinating conjunctions, short prepositions; lowercased mid-title.
- Length switch = AP capitalises prepositions of 4 or more letters; Chicago keeps them lowercase.
Worked example
Convert the raw string the lord of the rings: return of the king to Chicago title case.
- Split: the, lord, of, the, rings, return, of, the, king.
- First word: "the" is first, so it becomes The.
- Minor words mid-title: of, the, of, the are all lowercased.
- Major words: lord, rings, return, king are capitalised to Lord, Rings, Return, King.
- Last word: "king" is last, capitalised to King (already covered).
Style guide comparison
The same word can be capitalised or lowercased depending on the guide. The biggest divergence is how each one treats longer prepositions.
| Word | AP Style | Chicago | APA |
|---|---|---|---|
| over (preposition, 4 letters) | Over | over | over |
| with (preposition, 4 letters) | With | with | with |
| in / on / at (short prep) | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase |
| is / are (verb) | Capital | Capital | Capital |
| and / but / or (conjunction) | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase |
| first / last word | Capital | Capital | Capital |
Common pitfalls
- Lowercasing verbs because they are short. Is, are, be, and do look like minor words but are verbs, so they are always capitalised.
- Forgetting the last word. A title ending in a preposition, such as "A World to Live In", still capitalises that final In.
- Mixing two guides. Capitalising "Over" (AP) but lowercasing "with" (Chicago) in the same title looks inconsistent. Pick one guide and apply it throughout.
- Mishandling subtitles. The first word after a colon starts a new unit and is capitalised, even if it is normally a minor word.
- Trusting the tool on proper nouns and acronyms. A converter may lowercase "iPhone" to "Iphone" or "NASA" to "Nasa"; always proofread brand names and initialisms by hand.
- Confusing title case with all-caps or sentence case. Title case is not SHOUTING and it is not sentence case; using the wrong style for the medium (web headings often use sentence case) reads as an error.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between AP and Chicago title case?
AP Style lowercases prepositions of 3 letters or fewer (in, on, at) and capitalizes those of 4 letters or more (over, with, from). Chicago lowercases all prepositions regardless of length unless they are the first or last word. Chicago also has more nuanced rules for hyphenated compounds. The practical upshot is that the same headline can be capitalised two different but equally correct ways, so the right answer depends on which guide your publication follows.
Which words are lowercased in title case?
Across the major guides the lowercase set is articles (a, an, the), the seven coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so), and short prepositions (in, on, at, by, of, to, up, and usually vs). Everything else, meaning nouns, verbs (including is, are, was), adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns, is capitalised. The only exception is the first and last word of the title, which are always capitalised no matter what part of speech they are.
Is the always lowercase in title case?
Yes, except when The is the first word of the title, as in The Catcher in the Rye. Articles (a, an, the) are always lowercased anywhere else in the title. The same first-and-last-word rule overrides every other lowercasing rule, so a title that ends on a preposition, such as A Place to Stand On, capitalises that final On.
How does title case handle hyphenated and verb-form words?
Most tools capitalise each part of a hyphenated compound (Mother-in-Law, Five-Year-Old), though some publications prefer Mother-in-law and edit the result by hand. Forms of the verb to be (is, are, was, were) are real verbs and are always capitalised, which surprises people who assume short words are lowercased. Vs and vs. are lowercased by AP, Chicago, and Wikipedia unless they fall first or last.
Why is my title capitalised differently from another tool?
Different tools implement different style-guide interpretations, and the guides themselves disagree, most visibly on prepositions of four or more letters. AP capitalises them, Chicago does not. A converter is only as consistent as the single guide it encodes, so pick the guide your publication uses, run the text through one style, and proofread proper nouns and edge cases by eye before publishing.