Sentence case is the capitalization style most people use when writing a normal sentence: capitalize the first word, capitalize proper nouns, and leave everything else lowercase. It is the default style in newspapers, modern apps, and most academic publications, and it is by far the simplest title-style rule to remember.
This guide covers the full sentence case rule, how it compares to title case, where you will see it used, and the few edge cases that trip people up.
Quick Reference: Sentence Case Rules
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| Capitalize the first word | Remote work is here to stay |
| Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives | How Stripe rebuilt its design system |
| Everything else stays lowercase | The best wireless headphones of the year |
| After a colon or semicolon: usually lowercase | Climate report: the year in numbers |
| Acronyms keep their natural capitalization | How NASA picks its mission patches |
What Is Sentence Case?
Sentence case is a capitalization style where only the first word of a sentence or title is capitalized, along with any proper nouns or proper adjectives that appear inside it. Every other word stays lowercase.
It is sometimes called "reference style" or "down style" in publishing circles, because it keeps the capitalization "down" rather than capitalizing every major word the way title case does.
The rule is the same across every major style guide. APA, MLA, Chicago, AP, and the Bluebook all use sentence case for certain elements (article titles in reference lists, sub-headings, captions, and figure labels), and they all agree on how it works.
Sentence Case Rules in Detail
1. Capitalize the very first word
Regardless of what part of speech that first word is, capitalize it. This includes articles like "a", "an", and "the".
Example: A quiet revolution in remote work
2. Capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives
Names of people, brands, places, products, and adjectives derived from them stay capitalized even mid-sentence. This is the same rule you follow when writing any regular sentence.
Example: Why Figma is winning the design tool race
3. Leave everything else lowercase
Every other word, whether it is a verb, noun, adjective, adverb, or preposition, stays lowercase. This is what makes sentence case feel cleaner and easier to scan than title case.
4. After a colon, semicolon, or dash: usually lowercase
In standard sentence case, the word after a colon or semicolon stays lowercase. Title case treats subtitles after a colon as a fresh start and capitalizes the next word, but sentence case does not.
Sentence case: Annual report: a record year for growth
Title case: Annual Report: A Record Year for Growth
APA is the one major exception: it capitalizes the first word after a colon in titles, even in sentence case. See the full rules for capitalization after a colon for the per-guide breakdown.
5. Acronyms keep their casing
NASA, FBI, SaaS, API, and any other acronym stays in its natural form. Sentence case does not lowercase acronyms.
Sentence Case vs Title Case
The two styles cover the same job (formatting headings, titles, and labels) but produce very different results. Here is the same headline written in each style:
| Style | Example |
|---|---|
| Sentence case | The hidden cost of context switching for software teams |
| Title case | The Hidden Cost of Context Switching for Software Teams |
If you want a longer side-by-side comparison, see title case vs sentence case. For the rules across every title-case style guide, see title case styles.
When to Use Sentence Case
Sentence case has quietly become the default across most modern writing contexts. You will see it in:
- News headlines: Reuters, The Guardian, NPR, The New York Times online edition, and most other major newsrooms use sentence case for web headlines.
- Modern apps and UI copy: Notion, Linear, Stripe, Figma, Slack, and Apple's own product UI all use sentence case for buttons, menu items, and section headers.
- Academic articles and reference lists: APA, Chicago author-date, and CSE styles use sentence case for article titles in their reference lists.
- Email subject lines: Most marketing teams use sentence case because it feels less corporate and more conversational.
- Casual blog posts and newsletters: Substack, Medium, and most newsletter platforms default to sentence case for post titles.
If your brand voice is friendly, conversational, or modern, sentence case is almost always the right choice. If you are working in a more formal context (book titles, academic paper titles outside the reference list, magazine cover lines), title case still rules.
Sentence Case Examples From the Wild
Real headlines from leading publications and product UIs:
- "Apple unveils next-generation chip for cloud workloads" (Reuters)
- "The quiet shift in how software teams measure productivity" (The Guardian)
- "What happens when you ask AI to plan your vacation" (NPR)
- "Settings", "Account preferences", "Connected apps" (typical macOS menu structure)
- "Create new project", "Invite a teammate", "Manage billing" (typical SaaS button copy)
Common Sentence Case Mistakes
A few patterns trip people up. Writers sometimes capitalize "important-feeling" words like nouns, hoping to draw attention to them, but in sentence case importance does not earn a capital letter. "Our annual Report" should be "Our annual report." Another common slip is lowercasing brand names: "How figma is winning the design race" looks correct at a glance but fails the proper-noun rule. Acronyms occasionally get the same treatment by mistake, so you will see "How nasa picks its mission patches" written by people overcorrecting. Finally, in pure sentence case the word after a colon stays lowercase, so "Annual report: A record year" is a mix of styles. Pick one and stick with it.
Convert Any Text to Sentence Case
You can convert any block of text to sentence case in one click with the free sentence case converter. Paste your headline or paragraph, and the tool applies the rules above instantly.
For the title case side of the comparison, see the title case converter at the top of this page, or browse the per-guide rules for APA, Chicago, MLA, and AP.
