Plural of Wolf

search our site by Craig Shrives

The Plural of Wolf

The plural of wolf is wolves.

• If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf. (Nikita Khrushchev)
• An audience can be like a pack of wolves. (Paul Mooney)

The noun wolf adheres to the standard rules for forming the plurals of nouns in English (shown in the table below).

Are You Good at Plurals?

Here's a quick test.

Getting ready...

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	lamp scythe	add s	lamps scythes
Noun Ending s, sh, ch, x or z	bus dress	add es	buses dresses
Nouns ending [consonant] o	hero zero tomato	add either s or es (There are no rules for this - you have to know.)	heroes 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 wolf	ves and/or s (There are no rules - you have to know.)	dwarfs wolves
Exceptions	man louse	some nouns undergo a vowel or letters change	men lice
More exceptions	salmon sheep	some nouns do not change at all	salmon sheep

Read more about English spelling rules.

Why Is There Confusion over the Plural of Wolf?

There is confusion because the rule for forming the plurals of nouns ending f isn't straightforward. Most nouns will drop the f and gain a ves. For example:

• Loaf becomes loaves.
• Leaf becomes leaves.

Some just add s. For example:

• Roof becomes roofs.
• Chief becomes chiefs.

With some words, both versions are accepted. For example:

• Scarf becomes scarfs or scarves.
• dwarf becomes dwarfs or dwarves.

The plural is always wolves. Unfortunately, there is no clever way of knowing which nouns ending f follow which rules. You have to know.

Of note, the verb to wolf down means to eat something quickly. In the third person present tense, it becomes wolfs down.

Ready for the Test?