Plural of Status

What Is the Plural of Status?

The Quick Answer

The plural of "status" is "status" or "statuses." Both "status" and "statuses" are used in the UK and the US. "Statuses" is marginally more popular than "status." ("Status" has been losing ground against "statuses" since the 1960s.)

The plural of "status" can be "status" or "statuses," but "statuses" is the more common. [evidence]

The system has four alert status related to the avalanche risk.
It is evident that we are seeing protestors from across various social statuses.

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The Standard Rules for Forming the Plurals

The table below shows where "status" fits within the standard rules for forming the plurals of nouns in English.

Type	Example of Type	Forming the Plural	Plural
Most Nouns	yeti scythe	add s	yetis scythes
Noun Ending s, sh, ch, x or z	status dress	add es	statuses 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	storey () donkey	add s	storeys donkeys
Nouns ending f or fe	dwarf knife	ves and/or s (There are no rules - you have to know.)	dwarfs knives
Exceptions	man louse	some nouns undergo a vowel or letters change	men lice
More exceptions	status salmon sheep	some nouns do not change at all	status salmon sheep

Why Is There Confusion over the Plural of Status?

As "status" is a Latin word, many expect the plural to be "stati." However, "stati" is not used. Using the standard rules for forming plurals in English, the plural of "status" is "statuses," which is widely used. However, as this sounds awkward, "status" is also commonly used as the plural.

According to a lively debate on Wikipedia, the plural of "status" is "statūs" pronounced with a long u (i.e., "statoos").