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What is the plural form of "status"?

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7 Answers

up vote 23 down vote accepted

There are some cases "status" may be accounted of countable. In those cases, the plural form can be used as "statuses". MacMillan dictionary gives 3 definitions for "status", and 2 of them are referred to as countable & uncountable. Personally, I would use "status" as the plural form instead of "statuses".

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2  
That's not always clear in some business uses: "How many status did you maintain on that order?" vs "How many statuses did you maintain on that order?" Obviously one could change that to "state": "How many states did...?" but when the business term in use is "status" then altering the term makes things less clear. Of course this is a specialized use-case. – cori Aug 14 '10 at 20:45
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+1 For saying that "statuses" is acceptable, and maintaining your position of using "status" as the plural. – Vincent McNabb Aug 16 '10 at 4:56
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So why isn't it statii? – bobobobo Jan 12 '11 at 11:25
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Oh, because its from Latin, not Greek – bobobobo Jan 13 '11 at 16:13
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@bobobobo: Besides, there isn't a single word not ending in -ius whose plural ends in -ii (AFAIK). Something like statii could only be the plural of “statius”, and only under the right circumstances. (Think of the incorrect *virii, etc.) [Edit: And if you'd read the rest of the answers, you needn't have posted this, and if I'd read the comments on them, I needn't have posted this either. :p] – ShreevatsaR Feb 3 '11 at 18:00
up vote 3 down vote

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.

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up vote 2 down vote

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).

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up vote 0 down vote

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"

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5  
Why on earth would you use "statii"? Even if you were forming Latin-style plurals for some reason, "statii" would only be the plural of "statius". It's really mystifying why people want to put two ‘i’s; see e.g. Language Log posts here, here, here. – ShreevatsaR Aug 14 '10 at 16:05
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That's a good question. "Statuses" just sounded wrong, I suppose; I never really considered whether it was correct or not until I read this question. The place I've used the plural form the most is in discussions about reports from a business system at my employer, and "statii" was the commonly used term there. Now I know better.... – cori Aug 14 '10 at 20:39
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In Latin the plural is neither 'statii' nor 'stati': it is 'statūs' (4th declension, or "-u stem" to an Indo-Eorpeanist) – Colin Fine Oct 6 '10 at 13:01
up vote 2 down vote

It is definitely status - with a long "u".

This is because it is a Latin word under u-declination.

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I'm tempted to upvote this just for cleverness :). – JSBձոգչ Aug 14 '10 at 13:44
@JSBangs: Thank you - yes, please upvote ;-) – vonjd Aug 14 '10 at 14:59
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That's the way it's almost always argued here in Germany. I'd suggest it's valid in English, too! – perdian Sep 7 '10 at 14:20
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Downvoted. It is definitely status with a long 'u' in Latin. This could have had a bearing in English, if it had got established in the era when most educated people knew some Latin. Since it did not, it is irrelevant to English. – Colin Fine Oct 6 '10 at 12:58
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+1 definitely the only way. Saying that latin is not used anymore has no sense here. – Elenaher Oct 12 '10 at 13:07
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up vote 1 down vote

It seems "status" is uncountable.

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One status.. two statuses!! There, see! Countable. – bobobobo Jan 12 '11 at 11:26

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