Is "On" Capitalized in a Title?

Title capitalization guide

It depends — "on" is lowercase in AP and Chicago Style but capitalized in NYT Style.

preposition

Capitalized in 2 styles

Lowercase in 8 styles

Title Case

Lowercase as a short preposition unless first or last word

AP Style

Lowercase — AP lowercases all prepositions

NYT Style

YES

Capitalized — NYT Style capitalizes prepositions

Chicago Style

Lowercase — two letters, under the four-letter threshold

MLA Style

Lowercase as a short preposition

APA Style

Sentence case — only first word and proper nouns

AMA Style

Lowercase — AMA follows AP-style preposition rules

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

"On" splits directly along the line between journalism and publishing. AP Style lowercases it as a preposition, while NYT Style capitalizes it. Chicago Style and MLA Style lowercase it based on its two-letter length.

NYT Style takes a different view, capitalizing most prepositions including "on." This produces headlines that are visually denser and more uniformly capitalized than AP-style headlines.

Like other prepositions, "on" can also function as an adverb or particle in phrasal verbs — "carry on," "move on," "hold on." When it carries adverbial meaning as part of a verb phrase, Chicago Style recommends capitalizing it.

"On" as the first or last word of a title is always capitalized. Titles beginning with "On" — a common form for essays and philosophical works — are correctly capitalized regardless of what style guide applies to the rest of the title.

"On" is among the shortest prepositions in English and is lowercased in AP Style, Chicago Style, MLA Style, and AMA Style. These style guides treat all short prepositions as function words that do not carry enough independent meaning to warrant capitalization.