Rules for capitalization can be confusing. Not all grammar books agree on the same style. The guidelines in this post are based on the latest accepted usage for business and personal writing.

Capitalize the first word in any sentence, the personal pronoun I, and the first word of a direct quotation if it is a complete statement.

• • Night falls quickly in the mountains.
    The door was open when I arrived home.
  • He looked at the cake and said, “Diets, like pie crust, are made to be broken.”

Proper Nouns and Adjectives

Capitalize all proper nouns and adjectives such as the names of persons, business firms, business products, institutions, government bodies and agencies, and public and private organizations.

Personal names:	Lance Armstrong, Barbara Walters
Business firm:	Wal-Mart, Mrs. Field’s Cookies
Business products:	Honda Civic, Downy, Dr Pepper
Institutions:	Adler Planetarium, Stanford University
Government bodies and agencies:	Internal Revenue Service, Civil Rights Commission, Office of Homeland Security
Public organizations:	Junior Chamber of Commerce, Girl Scouts of America
Private organizations:	Midwest Authors Guild, JoAnn Kilmer Foundation
Proper adjectives:	Canadian beer, American flag, Australian kangaroo

Hyphenated Names and Prefixes

Capitalize all hyphenated names and hyphenated proper nouns. Also, capitalize all proper nouns and adjectives used with a prefix, but do not capitalize the prefix.

• • Send the bill to Mrs. Simon-Allen.
  • The Minneapolis-St. Paul project has been approved.
  • I am neither anti-British nor pro-French; I happen to enjoy both countries equally well.
  • He will always be a pro-Chicago politician.

Family Relationships

Capitalize words describing family relationships only when they substitute for a proper noun or are used with the person’s name. Do not capitalize the words if they are used with a possessive pronoun.

• • I told Aunt Julia that my sister would be late.
  • She described her father to me perfectly.
  • Granny Winters and Grampa McDonough live in the same neighborhood.
  • We got a letter from Aunt Helen and Uncle Bill.
  • Do you know her cousin Lucia?

Nationalities and Races

Capitalize the names of nationalities. Racial groups may be lowercased or capitalized. The only firm rule is be consistent. If you capitalize one racial group, capitalize the others as well.

Nationalities	Racial Groups
Australian Chinese Indian Thai	Black or black White or white

Languages and School Subjects

Capitalize languages and those school subjects followed by a number. Do not capitalize general school subjects unless the subject is a language.

Languages	School Subjects
Arabic English Korean Polish	Biology 403 French history literature Social Science 202 conversational Spanish statistics

Religious Names and Terms

The names of all religions, denominations, and local groups are capitalized.

Religions
Buddhism Islam Shintoism Christianity Judaism Taoism Hinduism

Denominations and Movements
Jehovah’s Witnesses Methodism Mormonism Sufism Theosophy Zen Buddhism

Local Groups
Church of the Redeemer Midwest Baptist Conference Saint Leonard’s House Temple Shalom

Capitalize the names of deities and revered persons.

the Almighty Allah Lamb of God Pan Kali	Child of God Jehovah Holy Ghost Shiva Egun-gun	the Word Logos Mother of God Kwan Yin Astarte

Capitalize the names of sacred works individual parts.

the Bible the Talmud Genesis Apostles’ Creed the Decalogue	the Koran the Vedas the Beatitudes Epistles Book of Job	the Book of David the Tripitaka the Diamond Sutra Sermon on the Mount Acts of the Apostles

Capitalize religious holidays and terms relating to the Eucharistic sacrament.

Ascension of the Virgin Christmas Easter	High Mass Holy Communion Lent	Passover Ramadan Yom Kippur

Names of other rites and services are not capitalized in a text.

baptism bar (bas) mitzvah confession	confirmation evening prayer matins	seder vesper service worship service

Academic Degrees and Personal Titles

Capitalize academic degrees and personal titles used as part of people’s names or as a substitute for their names. Titles used after a person’s name or by themselves generally are not capitalized.

The exception to the rule occurs when the title refers to the highest national, state, or church offices, such as the President of the United States. In such cases, the title may be capitalized.

Professor Louise Sasaki	Louise Sasaki, PhD
Dr. Bernard Stone	Bernard Stone, MD
President Don Roth	Don Roth, president
Director Ellen Tate	Ellen Tate, director
Vice President Johnson	the Vice President (of the United States)
Cardinal Cody	the Cardinal
Pope Benedict XVI	the Pope
Reverend Alice Milano	the reverend
General George Custer	the general
Admiral Patricia Tracey	the admiral
Queen Elizabeth	the Queen
Count von Moltke	the count

Historic Events, Special Events, and Holidays

Capitalize the names of historic events and periods, special events, holidays, and other publicly recognized special days.

Battle of Midway Black History Month Columbus Day Elizabethan Age Han Dynasty Hundred Years’ War Labor Day Live AID Africa	Miami Book Fair Mother’s Day National Pickle Week New Year’s Day Nicene Council Presidents’ Day Thanksgiving World War II

Historical Monuments, Places, and Buildings

Capitalize the names of all historical monuments, places, and buildings.

Arlington National Cemetery the Chicago Loop the Latin Quarter	the Prudential Building Times Square Washington Monument

Calendar Days, Months, and Seasons

Capitalize the names of all days of the week and months of the year. Seasons of the year are lowercase unless they are personified.

Tuesday November fall	Wednesday June winter	Friday April summer

But: Have we not seen, Summer, your jeweled nights, your days young and fair?

Documents

Capitalize the first word and all other words except articles (a, an, the) and prepositions under five letters (in, to, out) in charters, treaties, declarations, laws, and other official documents. However, when the words charter, act, treaty, and law are used alone, they generally are not capitalized.

Articles of Incorporation Declaration of Independence Magna Carta	Treaty of Orleans Uniform Commercial Code Wanger Act

Titles of Publications

Capitalize the first word and all other words except articles and prepositions under five letters in the titles of books, chapters, magazines, articles, newspapers, musical compositions, and other publications.

The Handmaid’s Tale (opera) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (book) “The Midwest’s Blue-Collar Blues” (article) “Do Your Own Tune-Ups” (chapter) Kansas City Star (newspaper)

Compass Points

Points of the compass are not capitalized when they refer simply to direction or are used as adjectives. They are capitalized when they refer to regions of the country.

east west the South the North Central states	north south the East	southwest northwest the Southwest	eastern western the Northeast

Geographic Names and Regions

Capitalize all geographic names and regions of a country, continent, or hemisphere.

Cities, Townships, Countries, States, Continents

California India	New York Niles Township	South America Western Hemisphere

Islands, Peninsulas, Straits, Beaches

Baja Peninsula Canary Islands	Strait of Magellan Strait of Malacca	Myrtle Beach Padre Island

Bodies of Water

Aegean Sea Lake Tahoe	Nile River Tinker Creek	Victoria Falls Walden Pond

Mountains and Mountain Chains

the Andes Cascade Mountains	Kilimanjaro Mount Everest	Mount Fuji Pikes Peak

Parks, Forests, Canyons, Dams

Aswan Dam Bright Angel Canyon Three Gorges Dam	Humboldt Redwoods Forest Serengeti National Preserve Yosemite National Park

Scientific Terms

The rules for capitalizing scientific terms, particularly the division of plants and animals, can be complex and bewildering. This section presents some general rules for capitalizing the more common terms that are likely to be used.

Common Names of Plants and Animals. Usually, lowercase the name of plants and animals, capitalizing only proper nouns and adjectives used with the names. Check a dictionary to be sure of accuracy.

black-eyed Susan Cooper’s hawk border collie golden retriever jack-in-the-pulpit mustang Persian cat	rhesus monkey Rhode Island red Rocky Mountain sheep rose of Sharon Thomson’s gazelle thoroughbred white leghorn fowl

Geological Terms. Capitalize the names of eras, periods, epochs, and episodes but not the words era, period, and so on used with the term.

• • Ice Age (reference to Pleistocene glacial epoch)
  • Lower Jurassic period
  • Pliocene epoch
  • Paleozoic era
  • Cambrian period

Astronomical Terms. Capitalize all proper names of asteroids, planets and their satellites, constellations, and other astronomical phenomena. In many cases, earth, sun, and moon are lowercased unless used with other planets in a sentence.

Alpha Centauri Andromeda Galaxy Arcturus Big Dipper Cassiopeia	the Crab Nebula Demos Halley’s Comet the Leonids Mercury	Milky Way North Star Orion Pleiades Saturn

Descriptive terms that apply to astronomical or meteorological phenomena are not capitalized.

aurora borealis blizzard hurricane the rings of Jupiter	meteor shower sun dogs tornado the moons of Uranus

Medical Terms. Lowercase the names of diseases, syndromes, symptoms, tests, drugs, and the like. Capitalize only proper nouns and adjectives or trade names used with these terms.

aspirin finger-nose test Guillain-Barré syndrome infectious granuloma acetaminophen	Parkinson’s disease poliomyelitis Salk vaccine tetracycline Tylenol

Physical and Chemical Terms. Lowercase laws, theorems, principles, and the like, capitalizing only proper nouns and adjectives used with these terms. Chemical symbols are also capitalized and set without periods.

Boyle’s law C-14 carbon 14 general theory of relativity Lorenz transformations	Maxwell’s equations Newton’s second law Planck’s constant sulfuric acid uranium 238

Capitals with Numbers

Capitalize a noun or abbreviation before a number when it designates a formal part of a written work.

Act V, Scene 3 Book IV Chapter 14 or Chap. 14	Paragraph 3 or Para. 3 Section 44 or Sec. 44 Unit 3