While numbers may be quoted in the media or popular science, they are, at best, an educated guess. There is currently no reliable way of estimating absolute numbers of platypus in a given area. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to answer this. How many platypuses live in this creek/river/area? Platypus is also commonly used as a plural itself (similar to sheep). The ‘i’ ending is used for words with a Latin origin. Platypus is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘flat foot’, therefore the correct plural ending is ‘es’ (although apparently the more correct greek term is platypodes). While most people seem to prefer platypi, the correct term is platypuses. What is the correct plural of platypus? Platypuses or platypi?Įasily the most commonly asked question. Send us a direct email using the button below. The most interesting or commonly asked questions will be added to the website.
Different types of octopuses/octopi can vary greatly in size.Have a platypus biologist satisfy (or further stimulate) your curiosity about this unusual animal.We saw not one but two octopuses/octopi during our dive today!.Check out these example sentences, in which we show how octopuses and octopi are always interchangeable.
PLURAL FOR PLATYPUS HOW TO
You have encountered more than one octopus and you want to know how to describe your situation. But we don’t see platypodes happening anytime soon.ĭo you know the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? Examples of octopuses and octopi used in a sentence
(Platypus Postscript) Platypus has an origin similar to octopus (from the Greek platýpous, meaning “flat-footed”), so the equivalent hypothetical plural would be platypodes. Don’t confuse octopodes with the word octopods, which refers to the eight-armed cephalopod mollusks of the order or suborder Octopoda, including octopuses and paper nautiluses. Still, some people like to use it (especially to spice up the octopuses vs. Reverse-engineering a word’s plural to match its language of origin is a strange way to go about using language (especially when there are two perfectly good plurals right there), so octopodes is not commonly used. The plural of this word would be oktṓpodes.īased on this, some have proposed the plural octopodes. Some people object to the plural -i ending in octopi because octopus actually derives from the Latinized form of the Greek word oktṓpous (meaning “eight-foot”). If you’re looking for a tie-breaker, consider this: scientists who study these creatures seem to prefer the plural octopuses (though of course the preference is not universal). Still, in all these cases, it’s more common to pluralize with a plain old -es. Many English words with strong roots in Latin have retained this pluralization pattern-think alumnus/alumni and stimulus/stimuli.Īlong with octopus, there are a few cases in which both endings are used, including: platypuses/platypi cactuses/cacti syllabuses/syllabi and thesauruses/thesauri (though, if you ask us, a plural is unnecessary here since you really only need one thesaurus). These words get pluralized by replacing -us with -i. Like the octopus itself, the English language is, in many cases, very flexible: both octopuses and octopi are acceptable and commonly used plural forms of octopus (despite what anyone on the internet may say).īut why octopi? Well, in Latin, there’s a class of words that end in -us. But it’s rarely used outside of the octopuses vs.
The proposed plural octopodes is based on the plural of the Ancient Greek word from which octopus ultimately derives. Of the two, octopuses is the simpler and more commonly used. Both octopuses and octopi are acceptable plurals for octopus.
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