There are such words as ox - oxen, torus - tori and many other which are irregular in a way of forming their plural form and I'm wondering if there is a special term for such words? On a side note I will appreciate some link which lists all these words to get an idea of total number of those.
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2The Wikipedia article on English plurals is excellent, even giving subsets of irregular plurals and advice on usages.– Edwin AshworthJun 2, 2015 at 8:36
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1So I guess those are called just "irregular plurals" and there is no fancy/obscure term for them? :) I don't know why I'm expected one :)– MikeJun 2, 2015 at 8:43
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'Words with irregular plurals' is all I'm aware of. ('Irregular' refers to the fact that they don't add the usual 's' or 'es' rather than how they look. So 'sheep' has an irregular plural, 'sheep'.) Some words have two or three plural forms.– Edwin AshworthJun 2, 2015 at 9:57
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The normal term is nouns with irregular plural (not: words with irregular plural). And that should be sufficient. Why another special grammar term? We have already far too many.– rogermueJun 2, 2015 at 12:15
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1 Answer
Apparently they are called "irregular nouns." K12Reader.com refers to them this way. So does English Language Terminology. If you google "irregular noun," you should find many pages about them. That should confirm that the terminology is common enough.
