Plural of “city”

The plural of city is cities.

Why

"City" comes from Old French "cite," from Latin "civitas," describing a body of citizens as much as a physical place — the Latin word was as much about the community of people as about the buildings they lived in. When English borrowed the word, it followed the general rule for nouns ending in a consonant plus -y: change the y to i and add -es, giving "cities" rather than a simple "citys."

This consonant-plus-y rule is one of the more consistent and teachable spelling patterns in English, unlike most of the irregular plurals elsewhere on this site — it applies reliably across hundreds of nouns and rarely admits exceptions, which is part of why it's taught early in school spelling instruction long before students encounter genuinely irregular plurals like "cacti" or "mice." The Latin sense of "civitas" as a community of citizens bound by shared rights and obligations, rather than simply a cluster of buildings, survives today in the related word "civic," which still carries that stronger emphasis on citizenship and communal responsibility.

Usage note

Municipal planning documents, geography textbooks, and casual conversation alike all rely on "cities" without exception; no competing spelling has ever gained any real traction for this word. Legal and administrative writing sometimes distinguishes "cities" from "towns" or "municipalities" based on population size or governmental charter, a classification question rather than a grammatical one, since all three pluralize as ordinary regular or consonant-plus-y nouns.

Urban historians distinguish ancient, medieval, and modern conceptions of what qualifies as a "city" at all, since the legal and practical thresholds for city status have varied enormously across different eras and countries, from a fortified settlement with a cathedral in medieval Europe to a population-based statistical threshold in many modern nations. "Sister cities," a formal diplomatic partnership between municipalities in different countries meant to encourage cultural and economic exchange, is a distinctly 20th-century institutional use of the plural noun, reflecting a deliberate, organized relationship rather than a simple geographic or demographic grouping.

Common real mistakes

Fast, informal typing often produces "citys" instead, skipping the y-to-i conversion step entirely; this shows up disproportionately among early language learners still internalizing the rule. Writers should also avoid confusing "cities" (an administrative and demographic category) with "metropolitan areas," which include surrounding suburbs and often span multiple separate cities under one shared economic label.

The wider pattern

The rule governing "city/cities" is entirely about what sits right before the final letter: a consonant before the y triggers the y-to-i-plus-es swap, the same mechanical process behind "party/parties" and "baby/babies" and dozens of other common nouns. Swap that consonant for a vowel, though, and the rule shuts off — "key" and "day" simply add -s, no spelling change involved.

Examples

• Several major cities canceled outdoor events due to the storm.
• The survey ranked cities by affordability and job growth.
• She has visited more than a dozen European cities.
• Cities along the coast face rising flood risks.
• The two cities merged their transit systems last year.
• Historians compared ancient cities buried by volcanic ash.
• Smaller cities often struggle to fund public transportation.
• The documentary explored cities built entirely underground.
• New cities sprang up rapidly during the gold rush.
• Several sister cities exchange students each summer.
• Officials from both cities signed a shared infrastructure plan.
• The census tracked population shifts among midsize cities.
• Delegates from twelve cities gathered for the climate summit.
• The two cities compared notes on affordable housing policy.
• Officials from neighboring cities met to discuss shared water resources.
• Planners studied how other cities solved similar traffic problems.
• The report highlighted cities with the fastest population growth.
• Both cities invested heavily in public parks last year.