Plurals of Mr., Dr., Mrs., Ms., and Other Titles
To form the plural of a contracted social or professional title, such as Dr. or Prof., simply add s and move the period to the end.
- Drs. Who and Spock have escaped the planet.
- Profs. Dash and Femy have published another paper.
Periods are generally omitted in British style, in which case, just add s (Drs Farooq and Duffy). Plurals of Mr., Ms., and Mrs. are exceptions, as discussed below.
Plural of Mr.
The plural of Mr. (mister) is Messrs., not Mrs. (which could be confusing). Messrs. is now seen mainly in formal and legal writing.
- Messrs. Dash and Tuck issued a joint statement this morning.
- We represent Messrs. Brown and Green in this matter.
Messrs. (pronounced ˈme-sərz) is short for the French messieurs, which in turn is the plural of the French monsieur, used as a respectful form of address before a man’s name, like mister in English.
Plural of Ms.
The plural of the title Ms. is Mss. or Mses.
- Mss. Brown and Green have been listed as coauthors.
Ms. is not a contraction, although it is written like one. As a title that doesn’t signify a woman’s marital status, it was created in the 1950s to be a neutral alternative to Miss and Mrs.
Plural of Mrs.
The plural of Mrs. is Mmes., short for the French Mesdames, now used in English mainly to humorous effect.
- Mmes. Thatcher and Gandhi would beg to differ.
Plurals of professional titles
Contracted professional titles (military, judicial, civil, academic, etc.) follow the general rule: add s and move the period to the end.
- This short but informative book was written by Drs. Ahmed and Johnson.
- We asked Profs. Curie and Spivak what they thought.
- Assoc. Profs. Rai and Lerato coauthored this study.
- Gens. Andrea R. Smith and D. Norman Nielsen are to be promoted to five-star rank.
- Sens. Ortiz, Jackson, Lee, and Patel have raised concerns about the ruling.
Abbreviations that do not contain periods (e.g., those with all capital letters) simply take s at the end to form the plural. Don’t use an apostrophe before the s.
- The two VPs met in Berlin today.
- We interviewed thirty-four CEOs during the course of the study.
Plurals of non-contracted titles
If a title (like Sir or President) is not contracted and does not end in a period, simply add s to form its plural.
- Guy Hamilton directed Sirs Sean Connery and Roger Moore in the Bond movies.
- Presidents Bush and Obama were invited to the funeral.
- She has interviewed many famous celebrities, including Dames Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Helen Mirren.