AP style capitalizes every word in a title except articles (a, an, the) and prepositions and conjunctions of three letters or fewer. Those short words are capitalized too when they are the first or last word. The rule comes from the AP Stylebook's entry on composition titles: books, movies, songs, TV shows, and similar works.
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AP Title Case Rules
- Capitalize the first and last words, whatever they are.
- Capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, however short: Is, Be, Its, New, Now.
- Capitalize prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters: With, From, Into, About, That, When.
- Lowercase the articles a, an, and the.
- Lowercase prepositions and conjunctions of three letters or fewer: and, as, at, but, by, for, if, in, nor, of, off, on, or, per, so, to, up, via, yet.
Length only decides prepositions and conjunctions. A short verb like "is" or a short adverb like "now" is always capitalized. The infinitive "to" is three letters, so it stays lowercase: "How to Write a Headline."
AP Headlines Use Sentence Case
The AP Stylebook's headline entry calls for capitalizing only the first word and proper nouns: "Storm knocks out power across the coast." Title case is for the names of composition titles inside a story, which AP puts in quotation marks rather than italics.
Plenty of blogs, newsletters, and press releases borrow AP's composition title rule for their headlines anyway. That is a house style choice, not what AP itself does. If you want to match AP news headlines exactly, use the sentence case converter.
Examples in AP Style
| Typed | AP style |
|---|---|
| what to know about the flu | What to Know About the Flu |
| a guide to cooking with cast iron | A Guide to Cooking With Cast Iron |
| notes from a small island | Notes From a Small Island |
| the man who knew too much | The Man Who Knew Too Much |
| what dreams are made of | What Dreams Are Made Of |
"About," "With," and "From" are capitalized because they have four or more letters. "Of" in the last example is capitalized because it is the last word.
How AP Differs From Other Styles
| Typed | AP | APA | Chicago | MLA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gone with the wind | Gone With the Wind | Gone With the Wind | Gone with the Wind | Gone with the Wind |
| a river runs through it | A River Runs Through It | A River Runs Through It | A River Runs through It | A River Runs through It |
| what dreams are made of | What Dreams Are Made Of | What Dreams Are Made of | What Dreams Are Made Of | What Dreams Are Made Of |
AP and APA agree on long prepositions. Chicago and MLA lowercase prepositions of any length, so "with" and "through" stay small there. APA has no last-word rule, which is why its version ends in "of." See title case styles compared for every difference.
Common AP Mistakes
- Capitalizing "To" in "How to." It is a three-letter word, so it stays lowercase mid-title.
- Lowercasing four-letter prepositions like "with" and "from." AP capitalizes them.
- Lowercasing short verbs such as "Is," "Are," and "Be." Verbs are always capitalized.
- Using title case for AP news headlines. AP writes those in sentence case.
Quick Answers
Does AP style capitalize words with four letters?
Yes. AP capitalizes every word of four or more letters, including prepositions and conjunctions like "with," "from," and "that."
Does AP capitalize the last word of a title?
Yes. AP capitalizes the first and last words even when they are short, as in "What Dreams Are Made Of."
Are AP headlines in title case?
No. AP news headlines use sentence case: only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized. Title case applies to composition titles.
Does AP capitalize "is"?
Yes. "Is" is a verb, and AP capitalizes verbs regardless of length.
For any single word, see the full list of words that stay lowercase.