Plural of status

By Mary Morel

Reader’s question: What is the correct plural of status?

Answer: Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, says:

‘In English usage status has both an anglicized plural statuses and the (zero) plural status. The second results from its being a Latin fourth declension noun … but also correlates with English use of the word as a mass noun, as in considering their relative status.’

So status and statuses can both be used as the plural, depending on the context.

Other -us Latin fourth declension nouns include: apparatus, census, hiatus, nexus, prospectus, sinus. 

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