Plural of “attorney-general”

The plural of attorney-general is attorneys-general (some dictionaries also accept attorney-generals).

Why

"Attorney-general" is a French-influenced legal compound where, following French noun-adjective word order, the noun "attorney" comes first and the descriptive adjective "general" (meaning broadly empowered, rather than restricted to a single specific case) comes second. Because "attorney" is the actual head noun of the title, being the person holding the office, the plural -s attaches there, giving "attorneys-general" rather than "attorney-generals."

This French word order, noun before adjective, survives in English almost exclusively in a small set of formal legal and governmental titles borrowed directly from Anglo-Norman legal French, including "attorney general," "notary public," and "court martial," all of which keep the noun-first structure even though ordinary English otherwise places adjectives before nouns. In everyday, non-legal American usage, "attorney generals" has become frequent enough that several dictionaries now note it as a looser, acceptable variant, part of a broader tendency in English to shift a compound's plural to its very tail end once speakers stop consciously registering the borrowed French word order.

Usage note

Legal writing, government documents, and careful journalism discussing multiple office holders should default to "attorneys-general" ("the attorneys-general of all fifty states signed the brief"). "Attorney generals" has become common enough in everyday speech to be widely accepted informally, but it's still worth reaching for the traditional form in anything formal.

In the United States, each state maintains its own attorney general as the state's chief legal officer, and multistate lawsuits or joint legal actions frequently require referring to several "attorneys-general" acting together, a genuinely common occurrence in American legal and political journalism covering coordinated state actions on issues like consumer protection or environmental regulation. The federal Attorney General, who leads the U.S. Department of Justice, is a single office, so the plural "attorneys-general" in American political writing most often refers to the fifty separate state officeholders acting collectively rather than to any federal plurality.

Common real mistakes

Writers commonly default to "attorney generals," pluralizing at the very end of the phrase rather than recognizing "attorney" as the noun actually being counted; while now widely tolerated in casual writing, this remains technically nonstandard in formal legal contexts. A separate error is capitalizing inconsistently, since "Attorney General" as a specific title is capitalized, while "attorneys-general" describing the office generically in the plural is typically lowercase unless part of a formal list of named titles.

The wider pattern

This same French word order and pluralization logic governs "notary public" ("notaries public") and "court martial" ("courts martial") — a small cluster of formal legal titles inherited together from Anglo-Norman legal practice, all built noun-first and all pluralized at that leading noun rather than at the tail end of the phrase.

Examples

• The attorneys-general of several states filed a joint lawsuit.
• Both attorneys-general held a press conference announcing the settlement.
• The panel included former attorneys-general from three administrations.
• State attorneys-general coordinated their investigation into the company's practices.
• Several attorneys-general signed the amicus brief supporting the appeal.
• The conference brought together attorneys-general from across the region.
• Former attorneys-general testified before the congressional committee.
• The coalition of attorneys-general pushed for stricter consumer protections.
• Multiple attorneys-general challenged the federal rule in court.
• Both states' attorneys-general agreed to share resources on the investigation.
• The lawsuit named attorneys-general from twelve different states as plaintiffs.
• Both attorneys-general defended the regulation in front of the appeals court.
• The task force included attorneys-general specializing in antitrust law.
• The two attorneys-general jointly announced the settlement terms.
• Several attorneys-general opposed the merger on antitrust grounds.
• The attorneys-general met privately before issuing their statement.
• Reporters questioned the attorneys-general about the timeline of the investigation.
• The two attorneys-general disagreed on how to proceed with the case.
• State attorneys-general are often elected rather than appointed.