'Statuses' or 'Stati'? If you're wondering what the plural of 'status' is, this article will teach how to pluralize the noun.
The short answer is that both 'status' and 'statuses' are correct ways to refer to the plural of the noun' status.' 'Stati' is not.
Read on to find out what this word means, how to use it, and why it is confusing.
'Status' is a noun that carries several meanings depending on the context.
The word's first definition is someone's rank or position within a social group. It's used to show hierarchy. Let's look at an example of the word in a sentence.
He was willing to give up his status as royalty to marry the woman he loved.
Her ultimate life was to achieve a higher status in society.
You only got in because of your parents' status in the community.
The other meaning of the word is synonymous with 'condition.' You can use the word to talk about the progress of a situation or the stage it's currently at.
Please let me know the status of the report you're working on.
The country's financial status is pretty dire at the moment.
I don't know the status of my application.
A more recent definition of the word relates to social media usage. For example, you can post a status on Facebook to update your friends on your latest news.
He updates his status every day.
I discovered he has a dog because he posted it on his status.
I never remember to update my Facebook status these days.
You'll also see the word used in the expression 'status quo. The status quo is the known and accepted state of things. To maintain the status quo is to keep things the way they are.
It's in their interest to preserve the status quo.
I think we need to challenge the status quo.
What do you think of the status quo?
Now that you understand the meaning of the word 'status,' how about if you wanted to use it in the plural form?
Plural nouns are useful for referring to more than one thing, place, or person.
The truth is both 'status,' and 'statuses' are acceptable forms of the plural.
'Stati' is not.
But 'statuses' is the more common way to refer to the plural of 'status.' It helps to clarify that you are referring to more than one status.
So when would you use the plural of 'status'? Let's see some example sentences to illustrate.
The participants all agreed to reveal their social statuses. ✅
The participants all agreed to reveal their social status. ✅How did they achieve their statuses as pop stars? ✅
How did they achieve their status as pop stars? ✅I never quite understood the obsession with Facebook statuses. ✅
I never quite understood the obsession with Facebook status. ✅
There's confusion around the correct way to pluralize the noun 'status' because it's a word borrowed from Latin. These are also known as "Latin loanwords."
Often, Latin loanwords also use the Latin plural. A lot of these loanwords are nouns then end in -us. For example:
However, this is not always the case. Plenty of nouns end in -us that don't use -i in the plural form. And 'status' is one of them.
What's interesting about the word 'status' is that there are two different ways to pronounce it.
The difference is in the pronunciation of the first 'a' of the word. Some pronounce it the phonetic way, 'a' as in apple. Others pronounce it using the name of the letter, 'a', as in 'alien.'
The pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) looks like this:
(Status /ˈstætəs/
Or
Status /ˈsteɪtəs/
I hope this article has helped you better understand the meaning of the word 'status,' how to use it in a sentence and how to pluralize it.
There are many confusing words like this one in the English language, but chances are we've written about it. Head to our Confusing Words guide to learn the correct spelling and plurals for many other words.
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