Chicago Manual of Style
title-case rules
For book publishing, humanities, business writing.
The Chicago rules
The Chicago Manual of Style is the standard for book publishing, humanities scholarship, and general-interest non-fiction.
- Capitalize the first and last word.
- Capitalize all major words — nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, subordinating conjunctions.
- Lowercase articles.
- Lowercase coordinating conjunctions.
- Lowercase prepositions regardless of length — the big difference from AP.
- Capitalize after a colon.
Worked examples
The same set of titles, converted under Chicago Manual of Style rules. Try them yourself by switching the style pill on the homepage.
| Input | Chicago |
|---|---|
the way through the woods |
The Way through the Woods |
of mice and men |
Of Mice and Men |
the man with the golden gun |
The Man with the Golden Gun |
a state-of-the-art device |
A State-Of-The-Art Device |
Edge cases we handle
- Proper nouns — iPhone, JavaScript, NASA stay capitalized correctly mid-title.
- Hyphenated compounds — handled per Chicago's specific rule.
- After a colon — the first word after a colon is capitalized.
- Acronyms and ALLCAPS runs — preserved as-is.
Try Chicago title case now.
Open the converter →Want to compare with another style? See the style guides index.