Editing Encyclopedia:Naming conventions (plurals) (section)

==Exceptions==
There are two main types of exceptions to this rule:

*Articles on groups or [[class (set theory)|classes]] of specific things. Some examples:
**Articles on groups of [[administrative division]]s (states or provinces), such as [[States of Austria]], [[States of Nigeria]], [[Provinces of Sweden]].
**Articles on groups of distinct entities that are nevertheless often considered together (preceded almost invariably by the word "the"), such as the [[Florida Keys]], the [[Americas]], or the [[Rivers of New Zealand]].
**Things like [[Maxwell's equations]], [[Legendre polynomials]], [[Chebyshev polynomials]], [the] [[Cauchy–Riemann equations]], etc. The topic is naturally the ''set'' or ''family'' of equations, although in some contexts they may be referred to in the singular. (That is, such a polynomial—for example—is of interest only because it is part of the [[polynomial sequence]] called the ''Chebyshev polynomials'', and the sequence is thought of for most purposes as a unit.) Similarly, one is much more likely to mention [[Arabic numerals]] than a particular Arabic numeral.
**Articles on particular language groups, as opposed to individual languages, are pluralized, such as [[Romance languages]], [[Afroasiatic languages]], [[Indigenous languages of the Americas]], [[Sino-Tibetan languages]].
**Things like [[Skew coordinates]]. Although one may speak of the second skew coordinate of a point, the article is on the ''system'' of coordinates.<!-- [Polar coordinates] is not an example because content resides at [Polar coordinate system] since 2006. -->
**Articles that actually distinguish among multiple distinct instances of related items can be sensibly given a plural title when the alternative would be to create an inappropriately large number of short articles, one on each instance. The various [[Zeno's paradoxes]], for instance, are incorporated into one article, with a correspondingly plural name.
**Articles on religious, national, or [[WP:ETHNICGROUP|ethnic groupings]] of people. [[Hindus]], [[French people]], and [[Koreans in Japan]] are all acceptable titles. Titles like [[Belgian]] should be recast in the plural, i.e., [[Belgians]]. If a ''plural'' title without the word "people" is available, it is almost invariably chosen; e.g., [[Bangladeshis]] is consistently preferred to [[Bangladeshi people]].
**List articles use a plural after "List of", e.g., [[List of common misconceptions]]. For a list of lists, the title should just be the plural "Lists of ...", e.g., [[Lists of books]]. See [[Wikipedia:Lists]].
*Cases where the title [[plurale tantum|exists only in the plural]].
**Articles on items such as [[scissors]] or [[handcuffs]] are not located at awkward, unnatural titles like [[scissor]] or [[handcuff]].
**Band names and the names of sports teams such as [[The Beatles]] or the [[Seattle Seahawks]] should be at their plural title.
**Articles about measurement units, including compound units, should generally be singular (so "[[Foot per second]]" rather than "[[Feet per second]]"). For measurement units formed by combining an object or event with a unit ("[[Lines per inch]]" or "[[Flashes per minute]]"), the plural form may be acceptable if overwhelmingly favored in ''definitions of the unit'' by reliable sources.
**With irregular plurals whose usage far exceeds the usage of the singular, the [[WP:COMMONNAME|common]] and [[WP:ASTONISH|unastonishing]] plural titles [[Bacteria]], [[Algae]], and [[Data]] are preferred over [[Bacterium]], [[Alga]], and [[Datum]] (although some would argue that ''data'' is a [[mass noun]] and, as such, is already singular).

In rare circumstances, we [[Wikipedia:Ignore all rules|ignore the rules]] here in order to make the encyclopedia better.

These rules apply only to [[WP:ARTICLE|articles]]. [[WP:CATEGORY|Categories]] are almost always given plural titles, and many [[WP:TEMPLATE|templates]] are as well.