Latin plurals

Latin plurals
Latin plurals
Plurals of Latin words used in English are formed according to the rules either of the source language (apex/apices, stratum/strata) or of the borrowing language (gymnasium/gymnasiums, arena/arenas). In some cases more than one form is in use, sometimes with a usage distinction (appendix/appendices/appendixes, formula/formulae/formulas) and sometimes with no clear distinction (cactus/cacti/cactuses). Words ending in -is usually follow the original Latin form (basis/bases, crisis/crises) for reasons of euphony, and the same rule operates in other cases (nucleus/nuclei). A more alien form is the plural -mata of words ending in -ma in the singular (lemma/lemmata, stigma/stigmata). There are occasional surprises; for example we might expect the plural of crux to be (Latin) cruces but it is in fact more often (English) cruxes. There is a trap for the unwary with Latinate nouns ending in -us which cannot form plurals in -i for formal grammatical reasons: hiatus (a fourth-declension noun in Latin with a plural hiatus), ignoramus (a first-person plural verb in Latin, not a noun), octopus (a Romanized form of a Greek word octopous), vademecum (cum being a preposition meaning ‘with’). The table below shows the types of plural that the more commonly used Latin words have in English; when there is more than one both are shown:
singular form / Latin-type plural / English plural
addendum / addenda
alga / algae
apex / apices / apexes
appendix / appendices / appendixes
aquarium / aquaria / aquariums
arena / / arenas
automaton / automata / automatons
basis / bases
cactus / cacti / cactuses
codex / codices
compendium / compendia / compendiums
corrigendum / corrigenda
crematorium / crematoria / crematoriums
crisis / crises
crux / cruces / cruxes
desideratum / desiderata
encomium / encomia / encomiums
focus / foci / focuses
formula / formulae / formulas
genus / genera
gymnasium / gymnasia / gymnasiums
helix / helices / helixes
index / indices / indexes
lemma / lemmata / lemmas
matrix / matrices / matrixes
maximum / maxima / maximums
memorandum / memoranda / memorandums
miasma / miasmata
minimum / minima / minimums
momentum / momenta / momentums
moratorium / / moratoriums
nucleus / nuclei
oasis / oases
radix / radices
referendum / referenda / referendums
stigma / stigmata / stigmas
stratum / strata
thesis / theses
vortex / vortices / vortexes
Further information will be found in the separate entries for some of these words

Modern English usage. 2014.

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