Title capitalization rules: which words to capitalize (and which not)
Every style guide agrees on the big things: capitalize the first word, the last word, and every noun, verb, adjective and adverb. The arguments are all about the small words in the middle — and about prepositions like from, with, and between. Here are the rules, style by style.
The rules every style shares
Four rules hold in APA, Chicago, MLA and AP alike. First: the first and last words of a title are ALWAYS capitalized, no matter what they are — even a tiny word like "a" or "of" gets a capital if it opens or closes the title ("A Guide to Work With"). Second: all major words — nouns, pronouns, verbs (including short ones like Is, Are, Be), adjectives and adverbs — are capitalized. Third: the word immediately after a colon or a dash is capitalized, even if it's minor ("Word Counts: A Study"). Fourth: articles (a, an, the) and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) are lowercase in the middle of a title. If you remember nothing else, those four rules produce a correct title most of the time.
Where the styles disagree: prepositions
The genuine fork between style guides is prepositions. APA and AP use a length rule: prepositions of three letters or fewer (of, in, on, at, to, by, up, for, off, out, via) are lowercase, while prepositions of four letters or more (With, From, Over, Between, Through, About) are capitalized. Chicago and MLA use a part-of-speech rule instead: ALL prepositions stay lowercase regardless of length — over, with, between and through are lowercase in the middle of a Chicago title. That's why the same headline can be correct two different ways: "The Fox Jumps Over the Dog" (APA) and "The Fox Jumps over the Dog" (Chicago). Neither is wrong — they follow different guides, so pick the one your school, publisher or newsroom uses and stay consistent.
So, is "from" capitalized in a title?
It depends on the style — "from" is exactly the kind of word the guides split on. In APA and AP style, yes: "from" has four letters, so it's capitalized ("Letters From Home"). In Chicago and MLA style, no: it's a preposition, so it stays lowercase ("Letters from Home") — unless it's the first or last word. The same split applies to "with", "into", "over", "upon" and "between". One nuance all styles share: when a preposition stops acting like a preposition — as part of a phrasal verb, for example — it's capitalized everywhere ("Setting Up a Business", "Turning Off Notifications"), because there "up" and "off" are adverbs.
Hyphens, colons and other edge cases
Hyphenated compounds: capitalize both halves of an ordinary hyphenated word ("Long-Term Plans", "State-of-the-Art Methods" — note the internal "of" and "the" stay lowercase because they're minor words). Colons and subtitles: the first word after a colon is always capitalized, in every style. Acronyms keep their capitals (NASA, HTML, U.S.). And a final honesty note: title case is a convention, not grammar — many news sites and most scientific journals skip it entirely and use sentence case, where only the first word and proper nouns get capitals. If you're not bound to a style guide, sentence case is a perfectly respectable modern choice.
Quick reference: what each style does with minor words
| Articles (a, an, the) | Lowercase in every style — unless first/last word |
| Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or…) | Lowercase in every style — unless first/last word |
| Short prepositions (of, in, at, to, by…) | Lowercase in every style |
| Long prepositions (with, from, between…) | APA/AP: Capitalized · Chicago/MLA: lowercase |
| Verbs, incl. Is / Are / Be | Capitalized in every style (they're verbs, not minor words) |
| First word after a colon | Capitalized in every style |
| Hyphenated parts (Long-Term) | Both halves capitalized in every style |
Capitalize your title correctly — pick a style and paste
What words are not capitalized in a title?
In the middle of a title: articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) and short prepositions (of, in, on, at, to, by, up…). APA and AP also lowercase only prepositions of 3 letters or fewer — longer ones like With and From get capitals — while Chicago and MLA lowercase all prepositions. Any of these words IS capitalized when it's the first word, the last word, or follows a colon.
Is "is" capitalized in a title?
Yes, always. "Is" is a verb, and verbs are major words in every style guide — the length doesn't matter. The same goes for Are, Be, Was and Am. Don't confuse short with minor: only articles, conjunctions and prepositions are lowercased.
What's the difference between title case and sentence case?
Title case capitalizes every major word (How to Write a Great Headline). Sentence case capitalizes only the first word and proper nouns (How to write a great headline). APA uses title case for paper titles but sentence case for reference-list entries; most scientific journals and many news sites use sentence case throughout.
Do I really have to memorize these rules?
No — that's what the converter is for. Paste your title into our title case converter, pick APA, Chicago, MLA or AP, and it applies the correct rule set instantly, including first/last-word capitals, post-colon capitals and hyphenated compounds.