Plural of “buzz”

The plural of buzz is buzzes.

Why

"Buzz" is an onomatopoeic word, imitating the low humming sound of an insect's wings, first attested in English around the 16th century — a coinage that arose from sound-mimicry rather than being inherited or borrowed from another language, unlike almost every other word on this list. Because it already ends in the double consonant "-zz," which is sibilant, it simply adds -es for the plural without any further consonant doubling, since the doubling that gives short words their characteristic spelling has already happened in the base word itself.

The word's meaning has expanded considerably from its literal insect-sound origin to cover general excitement or word-of-mouth attention ("there's a lot of buzz about the new release"), and more recently, in social media and marketing contexts, "buzzes" describes distinct waves or instances of that attention — a genuinely modern extension of a centuries-old onomatopoeic root.

Usage note

In everyday writing, "buzz" is often used as an uncountable noun for the general phenomenon of excitement or attention (singular only: "there's buzz," never "there are buzzes" in that general sense), while "buzzes" specifically describes multiple distinct instances or bursts — several separate marketing buzzes, or literally, several distinct insect sounds.

Its companion verb, "to buzz," inflects identically in the third person singular ("the phone buzzes constantly during work hours"), which makes sense given that noun and verb share the same onomatopoeic root and the same final sibilant sound. Beekeepers can often diagnose a hive's condition partly by the pitch and pattern of its buzzes, since a healthy, queenright colony sounds noticeably different from a distressed or queenless one — a practical, centuries-old skill that predates any modern acoustic monitoring technology now used to study hives remotely.

Common real mistakes

Writers sometimes assume that because the base word already ends in double z, no additional letters are needed for the plural, mistakenly writing "buzzs" — the sibilant ending still requires the full -es, giving "buzzes," not a bare -s.

The wider pattern

"Buzz" and "waltz" both end in sibilant z-sounds that already sit within unusual consonant clusters in their base spelling, and both simply add -es without any further consonant doubling, distinguishing them from shorter, more ordinary CVC words like "quiz," which does double its final consonant before adding -es. In telecommunications, "buzz" historically described interference or static on a phone line, a sense now mostly obsolete since digital lines eliminated most of that noise, though older speakers and technical writing about legacy analog systems still occasionally use "buzzes" to describe multiple instances of that particular kind of electrical interference.

Examples

• Several buzzes echoed from the hive as the beekeeper approached.
• The marketing team tracked online buzzes around the product launch for weeks.
• Two distinct buzzes interrupted the quiet of the workshop.
• Her phone lit up with buzzes every few minutes during the meeting.
• The convention generated buzzes on social media long before it opened.
• Investigators traced the electrical buzzes to a faulty wire in the wall.
• Multiple buzzes from the intercom went unanswered that afternoon.
• The film's early buzzes at festivals didn't translate into box office success.
• Insects produced constant buzzes throughout the humid summer evening.
• The startup rode two separate buzzes of media attention within its first year.
• Beekeepers listen for changes in the hive's buzzes to check on its health.
• The film's trailer generated buzzes online days before its official release.
• Two competing product buzzes overshadowed the smaller company's own launch.
• The mechanic traced strange buzzes in the dashboard to a loose wire.
• Old analog phone lines were prone to occasional buzzes and static.
• The convention floor buzzed with excitement, and reporters noted several distinct buzzes of activity.
• Technicians traced recurring buzzes in the sound system to a grounding issue.
• The app sends buzzes to your phone whenever a match is found.