Plural of Money

The Plural of Money

When used outside the context of law and accounting, money is a mass noun. It has no plural form.

• All the money in the world can't buy you back good health.
• If you can actually count your money, then you're not a rich man.

However, like other common mass nouns such as water and sand, there are occasions when money has a standard way of forming its plural.

Both monies and moneys are acceptable spellings.

• Voters are tired of using public monies to enrich millionaire sports owners.
• You are investing impressive sums of moneys for reaching your financial goals.

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The Standard Rules for Forming the Plurals

The table below shows the standard rules for forming the plurals of nouns in English.

Type	Example of Type	Forming the Plural	Plural
Most Nouns	cat scythe	add s	cats scythes
Noun Ending s, sh, ch, x or z	bus dress	add es	buses dresses
Nouns ending [consonant] o	mango zero tomato	add either s or es (There are no rules for this - you have to know.)	mangoes or mangos zeros tomatoes
Nouns ending [vowel] o	patio ratio	add s	patios ratios
Nouns ending [consonant] y	story penny	change the y to an i and add es	stories pennies
Nouns ending [vowel] y	money donkey	add s	moneys donkeys
Mass nouns	money rice	some nouns do not have a plural form	money rice
Nouns ending f or fe	dwarf knife	ves and/or s (There are no rules - you have to know.)	dwarfs knives
Exceptions	goose louse	some nouns undergo a vowel or letters change	geese lice
More exceptions	money sheep	some nouns have their own rules	monies sheep

Why Is There Confusion over the Plural of Money?

Confusion arises because money is typically a mass noun. A mass noun is a noun without a plural form. They refer to items that can't be counted (e.g., rice, milk, chalk).

Occasionally, money can be countable. This is usually the case in a law or accounting context. The plural is moneys or monies.

Monies is more common than moneys. This is unusual because most nouns that end in –ey take a standard -s plural (e.g., monkeys, chimneys, turkeys). Moneys naturally follows that pattern.
Some critics suggest that monies encourages a pronunciation akin to the plural nouns ponies or cronies. Despite this, monies remains the more common spelling.

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