What is the plural form of "status"?

Question

What is the plural form of "status"?

Answer 1

There are some situations where status may be considered countable. In those cases, the plural form can be used as statuses. MacMillan dictionary gives 4 definitions for status, and 3 of them are referred to as countable. Personally, I would use status as the plural form instead of statuses.

Answer 2

In Latin, the nominative plural of status as a 4th declension noun is statūs. This would be uncomfortable in English, and so the English plural is statuses.

The Latin adjective has a different masculine nominative plural of statī, but then means something more like the English static.

Answer 3

I see that I've very late to answer. I usually try to avoid the use of "status" as a plural, instead option to use the near-synonym "state".

Take for example these three attempts at pluralizing "status", all of which I've seen coworkers using:

The product should support the following statuses: Red Green Blue
The product should support the following status: Red Green Blue
The product should support the following statii: Red Green Blue

None of those sound natural, and one is objectively wrong. The issue is sidestepped by substituting "states":

The product should support the following states: Red Green Blue

Answer 4

Many moons ago, our own tchrist wrote^*

… If for some bizarre reason you simply cannot bring yourself to use the normal English plural form “statuses”, then you must learn that the true plural of status is statUs, with a macro[n] over the u [i.e., statūs] and pronounced “statoose”. That’s because status comes from the Latin declension that forms plurals according to that particular rule, which incidentally is just like the plurals of apparatus and prospectus, but unlike the plural of words like radius, which becomes radii because it’s from a different declension, and also unlike genus and corpus, which go to genera and corpora respectively because they are from still another declension. And please don’t ask me about octopus, since it’s Greek not Latin, and we do not care to offend any sensitive octopedal feelings. :-) Wouldn’t it be much easier to simply s/$/es/?

A word to the wise: don’t use fancy forms out of yesteryear unless you really REALLY do know how they work(ed). It just sounds silly.

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^* Message-ID: <[email protected]> in comp.lang.perl.misc, March 11, 1997.

Answer 5

Usually "statuses", but some people use "status"

As others have mentioned, there are several possible plural forms of status.

• statuses, regularly formed using the English plural suffix -(e)s. This is listed in various dictionaries e.g. Collins English Dictionary, Merriam Webster.

• status, taken from Latin. This is listed in a few dictionaries e.g. the Oxford English Dictionary (which actually gives three forms):

  Pl. (rare) status /ˈsteɪtjuːs/, (now usu.) statuses /ˈsteɪtəsɪz/, (rare) statusses /ˈsteɪtəsɪz/.

It’s not objectively better to use the Latinate plural form, or to try to pronounce it similarly to the way the Romans did. Status has been an English word, not just a Latin word, for a long time now. Latinate plurals ending in -us are rarely used in English, and in fact, several usage guides say the English form -uses is generally preferable.

The original Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H.W. Fowler, 1926 (as reproduced in the new 2009 edition) says in the entry for "-us":

Many [words ending in "-us"] are from Latin fourth-declension words, whose Latin plural is -us (pronounced ūs); but the English plural -uses is almost always preferred, as in prospectuses.

The contemporary usage guide writer Bryan Garner wrote the following passage:

nexus. The acceptable plural forms are nexuses (English) and nexus (Latin). Naturally, the English form is preferable—e.g.: "The nexuses of activity for both rooms are the counters where the marijuana is dispensed." Glenn Martin, "The Tokin' Joint," S.F. Chron., 24 Aug. 1997, at Z1. Some writers have betrayed their ignorance of Latin by writing *nexi, as if it were a second-declension noun.

To me, it seems simpler to just go with the regular English plural statuses, but if you prefer to use the Latinate plural status for whatever reason, you’ll have to make some additional choices about pronunciation (it doesn't seem obvious to me how to pronounce it).

Words that inflect similarly

Some other English words that inflected in the same way as status in Latin are apparatus, coitus, fetus, flatus, hiatus, impetus, meatus, nexus.

Answer 6

I always though that status should not be used as plural, but I notice that statuses is reported from the CoCA in sentences like:

Young people across a wide range of socio-economic statuses increasingly value choosing their own spouses, and individual choice [...].
[...], but those with higher threat statuses need even more conservation.
Certain references were also made about specific types of sexual activity including individuals' virginity statuses.

Statuses is used in academic context, with a frequency of 192 (compared with a frequency of 3 and 4 in magazines and newspapers).

Answer 7

I see some references to status as uncountable as well, but that doesn't make much sense to me. I've always used statii, apparently incorrectly: Merriam-Webster, at least, calls for "statuses"