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Please find words that have the following properties:

  1. A word that becomes its plural when the letter "s" at the end is dropped.
  2. A word that becomes its plural when the first two letters are swapped.
  3. Three words that become their plurals when letters are added to the beginning.
  4. A word that has no letters in common with one of its plurals.
  5. Three words that are plurals of two different words each.

Good luck!

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    $\begingroup$ Does a pluralized word need to be the plural of the original? $\endgroup$
    – kayzeroshort
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 23:18
  • $\begingroup$ @kayzeroshort Yes, sorry for not adding that. Edited my question to be more specific. $\endgroup$
    – noneuclideanisms
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 23:40
  • $\begingroup$ The language is not specified. Should we assume English? $\endgroup$
    – Édouard
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 23:45
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    $\begingroup$ @Édouard The question is tagged as English so... $\endgroup$
    – noneuclideanisms
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 23:49

6 Answers 6

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Let's see if these are what you're looking for!

1.

Per Rubio's suggestion, perhaps millionairess-> millionaires??

2.

Incredibly obscure: "Falaj" and "Aflaj".

3.

Yes -> Ayes. Then two very obscure ones: Loti -> Maloti and Xhosa -> Amaxhosa.

4.

Cow, which pluralizes archaically to "kine".

5.

Crosses (Cross/Crosse), Axes (Ax/Axis), Ellipses (Ellipsis, Ellipse)

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  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, wasn't clear enough in my instructions. I have edited my question accordingly. Number 4 and number 5 are correct, though. $\endgroup$
    – noneuclideanisms
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 23:38
  • $\begingroup$ Got it! I'll get back to work then. :) $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 2:22
  • $\begingroup$ All correct except for number 1. For 3 I was going for "sente" -> "lisente", but yours works too. $\endgroup$
    – noneuclideanisms
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 3:01
  • $\begingroup$ rot47 >:==:@?2:C6DD @C 3:==:@?2:C6DD without the final "s" becomes plural without (strictly speaking) changing gender ... $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 3:38
  • $\begingroup$ Since you're so close, I'll give you the checkmark now. $\endgroup$
    – noneuclideanisms
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 17:19
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Q1:

A bit of a stretch, but timeliness describes how timely something is, i.e. its timeline. The plural of timeline is timelines.

Q4:

I, which has we as its plural.

Q5:

Axes is the plural of both axe and axis.
Bases is the plural of both base and basis.
Ellipses is the plural of both ellipse and...ellipsis.

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Answer to Q1:

Princess -> Princes changes both plurality and gender.

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2
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Partial answer: Q2

acts --> cats

This was made before a clarification edit, so this answer isn't valid anymore.

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  1. Caress doesn't become its plural, but becomes a plural, scares. I also think schools would work in another sense, where school is the collective noun for a group of fish.

2.

3.

  1. I think a lot of collective nouns work here; also collateral adjectives could technically work here. For instance: bee, colony or apian.

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Q4:

man -> people; boy -> children; mom -> parents

Q5:

'Children' is the plural of both 'son' and 'daughter'.
'Parents' is the plural of both 'mother' and 'father'.
'siblings' is the plural of both 'brother' and 'sister'.

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    $\begingroup$ Children is the plural of child. Multiple sons would be properly pluralized as sons. $\endgroup$
    – greenturtle3141
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 23:32

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