Many English words, especially in biology, medicine, and law, have been adopted from Latin or Greek. Although most English words form their plurals simply by adding the letter 's', this is not true of these words. Examples are listed below.
|
|
|
| alumnus (male) | alumni |
| cercus | cerci |
| fungus | fungi |
| ocellus | ocelli |
| palpus | palpi |
| tarsus | tarsi |
| alga | algae |
| alumna (female) | alumnae |
| antenna | antennae |
| coxa | coxae |
| # | exuviae |
| lamella | lamellae |
| larva | larvae |
| maxilla | maxillae |
| pupa | pupae |
| seta | setae |
| tibia | tibiae |
| agendum # # | agenda |
| bacterium | bacteria |
| cilium | cilia |
| datum # # | data |
| flagellum | flagella |
| # # # | genitalia |
| labium | labia |
| medium | media |
| labrum | labra |
| ommatidium | ommatidia |
| operculum | opercula |
| ovum | ova |
| sensillum | sensilla |
| sternum | sterna |
| tergum | terga |
| tympanum | tympana |
| foramen | foramina |
| corpus | corpora |
| femur | femora |
| genus | genera |
| # # # | faeces (feces) |
| axis | axes |
| navis | naves |
| penis | penes |
| species | species |
|
|
|
| chrysalis | chrysalids or chrysalides |
| proboscis | proboscides |
| criterion | criteria |
| elytron | elytra |
| ganglion | ganglia |
| protozoon or protozoan* | protozoa |
| phytotelma | phytotelmata |
| stemma | stemmata |
| stigma | stigmata |
| stoma | stomata |
# does not exist in singular form
# # words agendum and datum are rarely used in English; agenda means "things to do," and is plural; there is no such word as "agendas" although such a word has been used in the popular press by ignorance, and although it may be listed in WWWebster's dictionary
# # # the singular is not used in English; feces is an American (not Latin) spelling
* protozoon is from Greek, but protozoan is English, formed from Protozoa
For additional words of this kind, see Nichols, S.W. 1989. The Torre-Bueno Glossary of Entomology. Revised Edition. New York Entomological Society; American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY. -- every professional entomologist should own a copy of this book.