Title Case Rules: AP, APA, and Chicago Style Compared
5 min read
Title case means capitalizing the major words in a title or heading. But which words count as "major" depends on which style guide you follow. The three most common are AP (Associated Press), APA (American Psychological Association), and Chicago (The Chicago Manual of Style).
The Universal Rules
All three style guides agree on these basics:
- Capitalize the first and last word, always
- Capitalize nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns
- Lowercase articles (a, an, the) unless they start the title
- Lowercase coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so) unless they start the title
Where They Differ
| Rule | AP Style | APA Style | Chicago Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prepositions | Lowercase if 3 letters or fewer | Lowercase if 3 letters or fewer | Lowercase all prepositions regardless of length |
| "With" (4 letters) | Capitalize | Capitalize | Lowercase |
| "Between" (7 letters) | Capitalize | Capitalize | Lowercase |
| Hyphenated compounds | Capitalize first element | Capitalize both elements | Capitalize both elements |
| "to" in infinitives | Lowercase | Lowercase | Lowercase |
| Words after colons | Capitalize | Capitalize | Capitalize |
Examples
| Style | Title |
|---|---|
| AP | The Man Who Sold the World |
| APA | The Man Who Sold the World |
| Chicago | The Man Who Sold the World |
| AP | Running With Scissors |
| APA | Running With Scissors |
| Chicago | Running with Scissors |
Words That Are Always Lowercase
Unless they are the first or last word of the title:
- Articles: a, an, the
- Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so
- Short prepositions (AP/APA): at, by, in, of, on, to, up
- All prepositions (Chicago): at, by, in, of, on, to, up, with, from, into, between, through, etc.
Words That Are Always Capitalized
- Verbs: Is, Are, Was, Be, Do, Has, Have (even short ones!)
- Pronouns: It, He, She, We, They, My, Your
- "Not": Always capitalized in all three styles
When to Use Which Style
| Context | Style Guide |
|---|---|
| News articles, journalism | AP |
| Academic papers, research | APA |
| Books, publishing | Chicago |
| Blog posts, web content | AP or Chicago (pick one, be consistent) |
Convert to Title Case Instantly
Don't memorize the rules — use our case converter to automatically apply title case. You can also generate URL slugs from titles with the URL slug generator.