Fungi vs. funguses

Photo of author

Grammarist

Though fungus has Latin roots, it has been an English word for many centuries, so there is nothing wrong with pluralizing it in the English manner—funguses. But even though there is nothing wrong with the English plural, fungus is one of a handful of Latin-derived words whose Latin plurals are conventionally preferred even in today’s English. In 21st-century writing of all kinds, and especially in scientific writing, fungi is the more common plural and hence the safer choice.

Comments are closed.