Is "Are" Capitalized in a Title?

Title capitalization guide

Yes — "are" is always capitalized in title case because it is a verb.

verb (plural present of to be)

Capitalized in 7 styles

Lowercase in 3 styles

Title Case

YES

Capitalized — verbs are always capitalized in title case

AP Style

YES

Capitalized — verbs are capitalized regardless of length

NYT Style

YES

Capitalized — verbs are capitalized

Chicago Style

YES

Capitalized — verbs are principal words

MLA Style

YES

Capitalized — verbs are always capitalized

APA Style

Sentence case — only first word and proper nouns

AMA Style

YES

Capitalized — verbs are capitalized

BB Style

YES

Every word capitalized — no exceptions

Wikipedia Style

Sentence case — only first word and proper nouns

Sentence Case

Only the first word of a title is capitalized

The full answer

"Are" is the plural present tense form of "to be" and is always capitalized in title case styles. AP Style, Chicago Style, MLA Style, NYT Style, and AMA Style all capitalize verbs as principal words in a title.

The word is only three letters long, which sometimes leads writers to incorrectly lowercase it. The short-word rule that lowercases "the," "a," and "in" applies only to articles, conjunctions, and prepositions — not verbs.

APA Style, Wikipedia Style, and Sentence Case use sentence case and lowercase "are" unless it opens the title. These three styles do not use title case at all.

A title like "We Are Family" correctly capitalizes "Are" in AP Style, Chicago Style, and MLA Style. Both "We" and "Family" are also capitalized as a pronoun and noun respectively.

"Are" is a verb form of "to be" and is treated identically to "is," "was," "am," and "were" for title capitalization purposes. Verbs are always capitalized in title case regardless of their length.