9 replies to this topic

[Crown Taxis]

I have found different opinions on the web. Some say "statuses", some "statii" and some say the plural is the same as the singular form.

[Fran]

English is full of foreign words, and some have become more native than others, so it's impossible to have a hard and fast rule.

I probably see "stadia" and "stadiums" in roughly equal proportions, along with other pairs such as indices/indexes, appendices/appendixes, cacti/cactuses.

Other imports are relatively fixed: I don't think I've ever encountered "agendum", and I've never been told "the spagetti are very good" or asked for a "Martinus" in a pub when I only wanted one Martini.

To answer your question, although you will occasionally find the word "statii", I find it is usually used in jest, and I don't think "status" as a plural is much more common; most of the time, most people use and accept "statuses" as the plural.

[PeterC]

I would go for statuses.

Indexes and indices are two different things.

Indices are entries in an index. Indexes means more than one index.

[K&P]

^{I'm wondering if the plural exists, or if it makes sense in light of the word's meaning?}

[Crown Taxis]

Thank you - "statuses" sounds right to me as well.

[PeterC]

^{I'm wondering if the plural exists, or if it makes sense in light of the word's meaning?}

There are occasions when the plural certainly isn't appropriate as in the question:
"What is the status of these projects?" where each may have a different status.
However when talking about the collection of values that may be given to status these are collectively statuses as in:
"A project may be assigned one of the following statuses"

[Crown Taxis]

Wanted to get it right for the following sentence

Show all statuses...

Or

Show all statii...

Or

Show all status...

"statuses" sounds right to me.

[Fran]

Indexes and indices are two different things. Indices are entries in an index. Indexes means more than one index.

I agree, but a sizeable minority seem not to.

Wanted to get it right for the following sentence
Show all statuses...
Or
Show all statii...
Or
Show all status...
"statuses" sounds right to me.

I think you have made the right choice.

[Bawbag]

Stack Exchange to the rescue!

http://english.stack...-form-of-status

[K&P]

Stack Exchange to the rescue!

http://english.stack...-form-of-status

What a fab site! Thanks.

K