Associated Press
title-case rules
For newsrooms and journalism.
The AP rules
The Associated Press Stylebook is the de facto standard for newsrooms, press releases, and most professional journalism.
- Capitalize the first word of the headline, regardless of what it is.
- Capitalize the last word of the headline.
- Capitalize all "principal" words — nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and pronouns.
- Lowercase articles — a, an, the.
- Lowercase coordinating conjunctions — and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so.
- Lowercase prepositions of three letters or fewer — at, by, in, of, on, to, up.
- Capitalize prepositions of four or more letters — Over, With, From, About.
- Capitalize after a colon if a complete clause follows.
- Capitalize both parts of hyphenated compounds.
Worked examples
The same set of titles, converted under Associated Press rules. Try them yourself by switching the style pill on the homepage.
| Input | AP |
|---|---|
the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog |
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog |
on writing well: a guide for non-fiction |
On Writing Well: A Guide for Non-Fiction |
a tale of two cities |
A Tale of Two Cities |
the new iphone is incredible |
The New iPhone Is Incredible |
Edge cases we handle
- Proper nouns — iPhone, JavaScript, NASA stay capitalized correctly mid-title.
- Hyphenated compounds — handled per AP's specific rule.
- After a colon — the first word after a colon is capitalized.
- Acronyms and ALLCAPS runs — preserved as-is.
Try AP title case now.
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