Wikipedia Manual of Style
title-case rules
For wikipedia article titles and section headings.
The Wikipedia rules
Wikipedia actually uses two different capitalization systems, and it's worth knowing which one you need.
Wikipedia's own article titles, section headings, and page names use sentence case — only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized (e.g. "History of the Byzantine Empire" would be titled "History of the Byzantine Empire" only because "Byzantine Empire" is a proper noun; an article like "List of national parks" stays almost entirely lowercase). If you're naming a Wikipedia page yourself, you don't need a converter for that — just capitalize the first word and any proper nouns.
Where title case does apply under Wikipedia's Manual of Style is for titles of external works cited within an article — books, songs, films, albums, and similar. This converter implements that rule, which is the one people usually mean by "Wikipedia title case":
- Capitalize the first letter of the first word.
- Capitalize all major words.
- Lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, and short prepositions of four letters or fewer.
- Capitalize after a colon.
- Do not capitalize the second part of hyphenated compounds in most cases.
In short: use this converter for a book, song, or film title you're citing inside a Wikipedia article. For the title of the article itself, use sentence case instead — our sentence case converter handles that.
Worked examples
These examples are titles of external works (books, films, etc.) as they'd be capitalized when cited inside a Wikipedia article — not Wikipedia's own page-title convention, which uses plain sentence case. Try them yourself by switching the style pill on the homepage.
| Input | Wikipedia |
|---|---|
how to make a pot of tea |
How to Make a Pot of Tea |
history of the byzantine empire |
History of the Byzantine Empire |
list of national parks |
List of National Parks |
the influence of greek philosophy |
The Influence of Greek Philosophy |
Edge cases we handle
- Proper nouns — iPhone, JavaScript, NASA stay capitalized correctly mid-title.
- Hyphenated compounds — handled per Wikipedia's specific rule.
- After a colon — the first word after a colon is capitalized.
- Acronyms and ALLCAPS runs — preserved as-is.
Try Wikipedia title case now.
Open the converter →Frequently asked questions
How does Wikipedia style its article titles and headers?
With sentence case, not title case — only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized ("List of national parks," not "List of National Parks"). This applies to article titles, section headings, and page names.
What are the Wikipedia Manual of Style capitalization rules?
There are two separate rules. Article titles and headings use sentence case, while titles of external works cited within an article (books, films, songs) use a title-case rule — capitalize major words, lowercase articles/conjunctions/short prepositions. This converter handles the second case.
Source
Unlike the other guides on this site, Wikipedia's style guidance is itself freely published — this page summarizes the actual public standard:
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles — the official, freely accessible guideline maintained by the Wikipedia community
Want to compare with another style? See the style guides index.