Title case converter
Capitalise a headline the way editors do: important words up, short joining words down, and the first and last word always capitalised whatever they are.
The rule everybody half-remembers
Title case is not "capitalise every word". Articles, coordinating conjunctions and short prepositions stay lowercase in the middle of a title. The words held down here are: a, an, the, and, but, or, nor, for, at, by, from, in, of, on, to.
The one rule no style guide disagrees about is the exception: the first and last word of a title are always capitalised, even when they are on that list. That is why it is To Be or Not to Be and not to Be or Not to be, and why The Lord of the Rings capitalises the opening "The" but not the second one.
AP, Chicago and MLA do not agree
There is no single correct title case, which is why two tools will give you two answers and both can cite a source. Associated Press style capitalises any word of four letters or more, so it writes Over, With and From. Chicago keeps all prepositions lowercase regardless of length, so it writes Notes on the Death of a Newspaper with a lowercase "on". MLA follows Chicago on prepositions but differs on subordinating conjunctions.
The list used here is close to the common core: the words all three guides keep lowercase in the middle of a title. Longer prepositions — with, over, into, through — are capitalised, which is the AP answer and the one most people expect a headline to look like. The single deviation is from, which is four letters and stays lowercase here because it reads better held down in the middle of a title. If you are writing to a specific house style, check the two or three words it treats differently rather than trusting any converter, this one included.
Hyphenated words and shouted input
A hyphenated compound is treated as a small title of its own: the first part is always capitalised, and later parts follow the minor-word rule. state-of-the-art becomes State-of-the-Art, which is what Chicago specifies and what looks right in print. Capitalising every segment — State-Of-The-Art — is the giveaway of a converter that split on spaces and stopped thinking.
Input in all caps is lower-cased before the rule is applied, so WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE OUTAGE comes back as a readable headline instead of unchanged. The cost is that genuine acronyms are flattened — NASA becomes Nasa — so a title containing one needs a quick fix afterwards.
Worked examples
Run through the same code the button runs, so the examples cannot drift from the tool.
| Input | Title Case |
|---|---|
the lord of the rings | The Lord of the Rings |
to be or not to be | To Be or Not to Be |
a state-of-the-art guide to shipping | A State-of-the-Art Guide to Shipping |
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE OUTAGE | What We Learned from the Outage |
Common questions
Which words are not capitalised in title case?
Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for) and short prepositions (at, by, from, in, of, on, to) stay lowercase — unless they are the first or last word of the title, which are always capitalised.
Is title case the same in AP and Chicago style?
No. AP capitalises any word of four letters or more, including prepositions like "over" and "with". Chicago keeps prepositions lowercase whatever their length. This tool uses the words all the major guides agree on.
How is a hyphenated word capitalised in a title?
The first part is always capitalised and later parts follow the same minor-word rule, giving State-of-the-Art rather than State-Of-The-Art.
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