Plural of “curriculum”

The plural of curriculum is curricula (some dictionaries also accept curriculums).

Why

"Curriculum" is Latin for "a running" or "a course" (related to "currere," to run, the same root behind "current" and "cursor"), and it follows the Latin neuter -um/-a plural pattern, giving "curricula," the same pattern behind "datum/data" and "medium/media."

"Curriculums" has become genuinely common in education administration and everyday school-related writing, largely because "curricula" sounds more technical than the everyday context usually calls for — a school newsletter comparing several schools' "curriculums" reads naturally, while an academic education-policy paper is more likely to reach for "curricula" to sound appropriately formal. Because education administration spans everything from kindergarten reading lists to graduate research programs, the word's register genuinely varies by level: elementary and secondary schools overwhelmingly favor "curriculums" in parent-facing communication, while colleges of education and academic journals studying pedagogy lean more toward "curricula" when writing for a specialist audience trained in the classical plural. Homeschooling communities, a large and active segment of everyday curriculum discussion online, split fairly evenly between the two forms, reflecting how thoroughly both plurals have become genuinely accepted rather than one being treated as more correct.

Usage note

Both plurals are listed as standard in major dictionaries, and the choice largely comes down to house style and audience: education researchers and university administrators lean toward "curricula," while parents, teachers, and general news coverage of schools use "curriculums" just as often without any sense of error.

"Curriculum vitae" (literally "course of life," the formal academic term for a resume) keeps "curriculum" singular within the fixed Latin phrase regardless of context, and its own plural, "curricula vitae," is rare enough in everyday English that most writers simply avoid pluralizing the phrase altogether, opting instead for a workaround like "CVs" or rephrasing the sentence. A useful practical test for choosing between the two: if the surrounding sentence already uses other Latin-derived academic vocabulary in its classical form ("pedagogy," "praxis"), "curricula" will usually sound more consistent; if the sentence is otherwise written in plain, everyday language, "curriculums" typically fits the tone better without seeming needlessly formal. A useful rule of thumb for uncertain writers: when in doubt, 'curriculums' rarely reads as wrong to any audience, while 'curricula' can occasionally strike a general reader as unnecessarily academic.

Common real mistakes

There's no real error between the two accepted plurals, but writers sometimes stumble by pairing "curricula" with a singular verb ("the curricula is outdated"), forgetting that it's the plural form and requires plural agreement, distinct from and often confused with the correctly singular "curriculum is outdated." Some writers also mistakenly treat "curriculum" itself as already plural, dropping the ending entirely ("the curriculum are outdated"), a subject-verb agreement slip distinct from the plural-choice question but worth flagging separately since it's arguably the more consequential error of the two.

The wider pattern

The same Latin -um/-a pattern behind "curriculum/curricula" also governs "datum/data," "medium/media," and "memorandum/memoranda," though "curriculum" stands out for how comfortably its regularized English plural has settled alongside the classical one without either being treated as an error.

Examples

• The school updated its curriculum for the new academic year.
• Several curricula were compared before the district made its decision.
• Teachers across the state helped design the new curriculums.
• Each grade level follows a slightly different curriculum.
• The university revised its curricula to include more electives.
• Parents reviewed the proposed curriculum at the town hall meeting.
• Both curricula emphasized critical thinking over rote memorization.
• The pilot program tested three separate curriculums simultaneously.
• A strong curriculum balances core subjects with creative electives.
• Education researchers studied curricula from a dozen different countries.
• The district piloted a new math curriculum in six schools this year.
• Faculty spent the summer redesigning curricula for the incoming freshman class.
• The board debated whether the pilot curriculum should expand district-wide next fall.
• Countries frequently borrow elements of each other's national curricula.