Editing English plurals (section)

===Teams and their members===
In the names of sports teams, sometimes a noun will be given a regular plural in ''-s'' even though that noun in normal use has an irregular plural form (a particular case of [[#Headless nouns|headless nouns]] as described above). For example, there are teams called the [[Miami Marlins]] and the [[Toronto Maple Leafs]], even though the word ''[[marlin]]'' normally has its plural identical to the singular and the plural of ''leaf'' is ''leaves''. (This does not always apply; for example, there is the [[Minnesota Lynx]], not *''Lynxes''.) Some teams use a non-standard plural spelling in their names, such as the [[Boston Red Sox]] and [[Chicago White Sox]].

When a sport team's name is plural, the corresponding singular is often used to denote a member of that team; for example a player for the [[Cincinnati Reds]] may be referred to as a ''(Cincinnati) Red''. This also applies to the [[St. Louis Blues]] ice hockey team, even though it is named after the song the "[[St. Louis Blues (song)|St. Louis Blues]]" and thus ''blues'' was originally a singular identical to its plural.

When a team's name is plural in form but cannot be singularized by removing an ''-s'', as in ''Boston Red Sox'', the plural is sometimes used as a singular (a player may be referred to as "a Red Sox"). Oftentimes, the singular "Red Sox" will be pronounced as if it were "Red Sock", even though the spelling suggests otherwise.

When a team's name is singular, as in ''[[Miami Heat]]'' and ''[[Colorado Avalanche]]'', the same singular word may also sometimes be used to denote a player (''a Heat'', ''an Avalanche''). When referring to more than one player, it is normal to use ''Heat players'' or ''Avalanche players'' (although in the latter case the team's plural-form nickname ''Avs'' is also available).

For the (especially British) treatment of teams as plural even if they have singular names, see {{slink||Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural}} above.