Editing Encyclopedia:Naming conventions (plurals)

{{Short description|English Wikipedia guideline}}
{{For|the use of plurals vs. singulars in articles|Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Plurals}}
{{Subcat guideline|naming convention|Plurals|WP:PLURAL|WP:NCPLURAL}}
{{Nutshell|Article titles should use singular form, except for nouns that are always in their plural form.}}
{{Naming conventions}}

In general, [[WP:ARTICLE|Wikipedia articles]] have [[WP:SINGULAR|singular titles]]; for example, our article on the ''Canis familiaris'' species is at ''[[Dog]]'', not ''[[Dogs]]''. This rule exists to promote [[WP:TITLECON|consistency]] in our article titles, and generally leads to slightly more [[WP:CONCISE|concise]] titles as well.

Exceptions exist for two general types of articles.

==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.

==Primary topic==
{{See also|WP:DIFFCAPS}}
{{Shortcut|WP:PLURALPT|WP:DIFFPLURAL}}
Because most articles (like [[Chair]]) have singular titles, the normal situation is that a plural redirects to its singular, or to [[template:R avoided double redirect|wherever its singular redirects]]. For instance, [[Chairs]] is a [[WP:R|redirect page]], which takes readers directly to [[Chair]]; [[Panda]] redirects to [[Giant panda]], and thus so does [[Pandas]]. For the rare articles that have plural titles, like [[Seattle Seahawks]], there should normally be a redirect from the singular form ([[Seattle Seahawk]]). Such redirects can bear their respective templates, as well: {{tl|R from plural}} or {{tl|R to plural}}.

Sometimes, however, a plural form will establish a separate [[WP:PRIMARYTOPIC|primary topic]]. [[Windows]] does not redirect to [[Window]], but rather to [[Microsoft Windows]]; [[Snickers]] is about the chocolate bar, while [[Snicker]] redirects to [[Laughter]]. It may also be the case that a singular form ([[Axe]]) has a primary topic, while a plural form ([[Axes]], which is the plural of both Axe and Axis) does not, or vice versa ([[Android]] is a disambiguation page, but [[Androids]] redirects to [[Android (robot)]]).

Discussion and [[WP:Consensus|consensus]] among editors, possibly through a [[WP:RM|requested move]], determines if there is or is not a primary topic. For instance, discussion and consensus might determine that [[Cars]] should redirect to [[Car]] (as it currently does), redirect to [[Car (disambiguation)]], or host a topic such as [[Cars (film)]].

In making such a determination:
*A plural form is treated like any other topic.
*The relationship between a singular and its plural is important, but not the only consideration. Because readers and editors are used to seeing titles at the singular form, and can be expected to search for them/link to them in the singular form, the intentional use of a plural form by a reader or editor can be evidence that a separate primary topic exists at the plural form. At the same time, readers and editors are used to the fact that plural forms usually redirect to their equivalent singulars and thus are likely to expect to be redirected to a singular title when looking for something else.
*Since normally users can be expected to search/link for/to topics using the singular form, searching/linking with a plural form is likely to be for a topic named with the plural form, when applicable. Example: [[Queens]], the New York City borough, is the primary topic for the plural form of "queen". At the same time, since readers and editors expect plural redirects, [[Parachutes]] is a [[WP:PRIMARYREDIRECT]] to the [[Parachute|device]] rather than being about the [[Parachutes (Coldplay album)|Coldplay album]].
*If the singular is not usually treated as a [[countable noun]], that makes it far more likely that a split is the best decision. For example, [[time]] is a straightforward and obvious primary topic, but usually we don't treat "time" as something with a plural. Accordingly, [[times]] does not redirect to [[time]], but rather to a different topic (in this case [[Time (disambiguation)]]).
*A plural of a countable noun should never be treated as a [[WP:TITLEPTM|partial title match]] when determining primary topic.
*[[Encyclopedia|Encyclopedic]] uses are given more weight than [[dictionary]] uses, per [[WP:NOTADICTIONARY]]. This may mean that if there is not an article at the singular form, it is more likely that a plural form can establish a separate primary topic.
*Just as with any other title, a plural base title can direct to an article ([[Snickers]]), or to a disambiguation page ([[Suns]]). A plural base title can also redirect to an article ([[Bookends]] redirects to [[Bookend]]; [[Faces]] redirects to [[Face]]).
*If separate primary topics are determined, add a [[WP:Hatnote|hatnote]] from the plural page to the singular form (or vice versa).
*Sometimes, what appears to be a plural form may also be a separate word, which can influence the primary topic decision. ([[Walls]] can be the plural of "wall", but can also be a separate placename or surname.)
*Sometimes, even when a singular might be ambiguous and lead to a disambiguation page, a plural might be (relatively) unambiguous and lead to a particular singular use; [[Oranges]] leads to [[Orange (fruit)]], not to the disambiguation page at [[Orange]]. This is primarily because only a noun can be pluralized, and the only other "orange" whose notability rivals that of the fruit is the color, and even though technically an interior designer ''could'' talk about choosing among several different oranges for the color of the curtains, usually only the fruit is pluralized in common usage.<ref>Similarly [[Blues]] is about the music genre while [[Purples]] goes to the color because it is unambiguous, see [[Wikipedia:Naming conventions and colours]].</ref> The reverse can also be true, and often is: [[Paper]] is a stable primary topic, but [[papers]] is highly ambiguous (since "paper" is typically an [[uncountable noun]]), and accordingly redirects to [[paper (disambiguation)]].
*Using a plural as a separate primary topic is not specifically encouraged or discouraged; this page only describes the conditions where it is appropriate to do so.
*All of these apply to the reverse situation as well ([[Scissor]] redirects to [[Scissors]]; [[Tropic]] redirects to [[Tropics]]).

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}