Which Words Are Capitalized in a Title? The Small-Word Reference

Quick answer: Capitalize every major word — nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns — no matter how short. Lowercase the minor words — articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so), and prepositions. Which prepositions stay lowercase is the only thing the style guides genuinely disagree about. And regardless of style, the first word, the last word, and the first word after a colon are always capitalized.

Almost every title-capitalization question people actually ask is a question about one small word. Is “the” capitalized? What about “with”? Should “is” be lowercase because it’s only two letters? Do I capitalize “and”?

This page answers all of them in one place. Below is a per-word reference table covering the twenty-six words that cause the most trouble, showing exactly how each of the nine style guides treats them — followed by the reasoning, the examples, and the handful of edge cases that trip up even careful writers.

The One Rule That Explains Almost Everything

Every title case style begins by sorting words into two buckets by part of speech.

• Major words — nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns — are capitalized. Always. Even two-letter ones.
• Minor words — articles, coordinating conjunctions, prepositions — are lowercased mid-title.

That single distinction resolves most confusion. “Is” is only two letters, but it is a verb, so it is capitalized.

Where the styles genuinely part ways is how much of the preposition list counts as minor. Most of them add a length cutoff on top of the part-of-speech test: APA and AP lowercase prepositions of three letters or fewer and capitalize everything from four letters up, Chicago and Bluebook lowercase up to four letters, NY Times up to three. MLA is the lone holdout — it lowercases every preposition however long, which is why “between” stays lowercase there even at seven letters.

The mental model: Ask “what part of speech is it?” first — that settles every major word in every style. Then, if the word is a preposition, ask “how long is it?” — that settles the rest everywhere except MLA (which never capitalizes one) and AMA (which capitalizes everything).

Position Beats Everything

Before the per-word table, one override you must know: position wins.

In every title case style, the first word, the last word, and the first word of a subtitle (the word after a colon or em dash) are capitalized — even if the word is an article or a preposition.

• Of Mice and Men — Of is a preposition, but it’s the first word.
• To Kill a Mockingbird — To is capitalized as the first word.
• The Place I Want to Go To — To is capitalized as the last word.
• Web Design: The Complete Guide — The is capitalized because it opens the subtitle.

Everything in the table below describes what happens in the middle of a title, where the position rule does not apply.

The Per-Word Reference Table

lower = keep it lowercase. Cap = capitalize it. All values are for a word appearing mid-title.

Word	APA	Chicago	AP	MLA	Bluebook	AMA	NY Times	Wikipedia	Email
the	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
a	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
an	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
and	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
but	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
or	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
nor	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
for	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
yet	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
so	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
is	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
of	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
in	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
on	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
at	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
by	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
up	lower	lower	lower	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
to	lower	lower	lower †	lower	lower	Cap	lower	lower	lower
with	Cap	lower	Cap	lower	lower	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
from	Cap	lower	Cap	lower	lower	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
into	Cap	lower	Cap	lower	lower	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
over	Cap	lower	Cap	lower	lower	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
about	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
between	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
through	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	lower
without	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	Cap	Cap	Cap	lower	lower

† Note on “to” in AP: To is a two-letter preposition, so AP lowercases it — including in infinitives. It is How to Build a Website, not How To Build a Website. No style guide carves out an exception for the infinitive marker; the capitalized To you sometimes see in headlines is an individual newsroom’s house preference, not AP.

How to read the table in one sentence per style

• APA and AP — capitalize any word of four or more letters, plus every major word however short. Both draw the line in exactly the same place, so on the same title they produce identical results.
• Chicago and Bluebook — lowercase prepositions of four letters or fewer, capitalize five or more. These two are effectively identical.
• MLA — lowercase every preposition, however long. The only style that does, and the most conservative.
• NY Times — lowercase prepositions of three letters or fewer; capitalize four or more. Very close to APA and AP.
• AMA — capitalizes every word, no exceptions. A Study Of The Effects Of Sleep On Memory.
• Wikipedia and Email — sentence case. Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized, so every small word is lowercase.

The Words People Ask About Most

”The” — the easy one

“The” is an article, and it is lowercase mid-title in every style except AMA. It is capitalized as the first word, the last word, or the first word after a colon.

• The Lord of the Rings — the first The is capitalized; the second the is not.
• A Journey Through the Mountains
• Tales from the Crypt

⚠️ Watch the second “the”: In The Lord of the Rings, writers frequently capitalize both. Only the first one is capitalized — the second is a mid-title article.

Brand names are an exception. When “The” is part of an official proper name — The New York Times, The Beatles — keep the capitalization the brand itself uses. Chicago retains an initial “The” for periodical titles when it appears on the masthead.

”With” — the word that separates the styles

“With” is exactly four letters, which puts it precisely on the boundary where the style guides split:

• APA: threshold is 4+ letters → With is capitalized.
• AP: threshold is 4+ letters → With is capitalized.
• NY Times: threshold is 4+ letters → With is capitalized.
• Chicago and Bluebook: lowercase 4 letters or fewer → with stays lowercase.
• MLA: all prepositions lowercase regardless of length → with stays lowercase.

Chicago / MLA / Bluebook:

• Gone with the Wind
• A Room with a View
• Cooking with Confidence

APA / AP / NY Times:

• Gone With the Wind
• A Room With a View
• Cooking With Confidence

“With” is the single cleanest test for identifying which style a title was written in. See “With” capitalized mid-title and you are looking at APA, AP, NY Times, or AMA. See it lowercase and you are looking at Chicago, MLA, or Bluebook.

The other four-letter prepositions behave identically: from, into, over, upon, onto, down, like, near, past, till. Learn how with is treated in a style and you automatically know all of them.

”Is” — short, but always capitalized

Yes, “is” is capitalized in title case. Every single style. It is a form of the verb to be — a linking verb — and verbs are major words regardless of length.

Correct:

• Why Sleep Is Important for Students
• The Customer Is Always Right
• Less Is More: A Guide to Minimalism

Incorrect:

• Why Sleep is Important for Students ❌
• The Customer is Always Right ❌

The same applies to every short verb: Be (To Be or Not to Be), Am (I Am Legend), Do (What Do Birds Dream About?), Go (Let It Go), Are (We Are the Champions).

The one exception is sentence case. APA uses sentence case for article and chapter titles in reference lists, and Wikipedia and email subject lines use sentence case throughout. In sentence case, only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized, so is stays lowercase: Why sleep is important.

”To” — preposition, infinitive, or neither

“To” causes trouble because it plays three grammatical roles: a preposition (a gift to you), an infinitive marker (how to write), and occasionally an adverb.

In every title case style except AMA — APA, Chicago, AP, MLA, Bluebook, and NY Times alike — both the preposition and the infinitive marker stay lowercase. To is two letters, and no style guide makes an exception for infinitives. Chicago is simply the most explicit about it: CMOS treats the infinitive to as a preposition.

• How to Write a Great Resume
• A Guide to Modern Web Design
• Learning to Code in Python

The infinitive test, if you need to identify which role to is playing:

• Infinitive: to is followed by a verb — to write, to build, to learn.
• Preposition: to is followed by a noun or pronoun — to you, to the store, to success.

In every style except AMA, the distinction makes no practical difference — both roles stay lowercase.

Conjunctions — it depends which kind

Not all conjunctions are treated alike, and this is the distinction most people miss.

Coordinating conjunctions join two equal parts of a sentence. There are exactly seven, remembered with the acronym FANBOYS — For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. These are minor words, lowercased in every style except AMA.

Subordinating conjunctions introduce a dependent clause — because, although, while, since, unless, if, when, after, before. These carry real meaning (cause, time, condition), so they are treated as major words and capitalized. (The exception is MLA, which lowercases the ones that double as prepositions — since, after, before, until — because MLA lowercases prepositions of any length.)

Coordinating — lowercase:

• Pride and Prejudice
• War and Peace
• Slow but Steady Wins the Race
• To Be or Not to Be

Subordinating — capitalized:

• Success Because of Failure
• Writing While Tired: A Guide
• What to Do If You Miss the Deadline

First or last word — capitalized regardless:

• And Then There Were None — And opens the title.

⚠️ The Chicago quirk: Editors following CMOS sometimes capitalize “so” and “yet” when those words function as adverbs rather than conjunctions (Why Are We So Tired?). As coordinating conjunctions they remain lowercase, which is what the table above reflects. APA, MLA, AP, and Bluebook keep all seven FANBOYS lowercase in every role.

Why coordinating conjunctions are minor words

Coordinating conjunctions are grammatical glue. They connect words without carrying much independent meaning, so style guides file them alongside articles and short prepositions. Subordinating conjunctions do carry meaning — they establish relationships between ideas — which is why they earn a capital letter.

The Two Systems, Side by Side

Everything in the table above reduces to two competing philosophies about prepositions:

Category-based (MLA alone): a preposition is a preposition. Lowercase them all, regardless of length. This prioritizes grammatical consistency — you never have to count letters, you only have to identify the part of speech.

Length-based (APA, AP, Chicago, Bluebook, NY Times): short prepositions look minor in a title; long ones look major. A title like Learning without Fear reads as visually unbalanced with a lowercase without. These styles resolve it with a letter-count threshold — a preposition earns a capital from four letters up in APA, AP, and NY Times, and from five letters up in Chicago and Bluebook.

Neither approach is wrong. They reflect different values, and the style your publication requires decides which one you follow.

The same title in four styles. Watch the two prepositions — four-letter from and seven-letter between:

Style	Result
MLA	Notes from the Conflict between Science and Faith
Chicago / Bluebook	Notes from the Conflict Between Science and Faith
APA / AP / NY Times	Notes From the Conflict Between Science and Faith
AMA	Notes From The Conflict Between Science And Faith

Get It Right Automatically

Rather than memorizing twenty-six words across nine styles, paste your title into the title capitalizer and pick your style. It applies the correct rule for every word and shows a word-by-word breakdown explaining exactly why each one was capitalized or left lowercase — including the position overrides and the sentence-case styles.

To see all nine styles at once on the same title, use the compare tool.

Related Articles

• Do You Capitalize After a Colon?
• What Is Title Case? Rules, Examples, and Style Guides
• What Does Sentence Case Mean?
• Title Capitalization Rules: The Complete Guide
• How to Capitalize a Book Title