

Our language takes words from a wide variety of sources generally when a noun enters into English it is pluralized as an English word, rather than in its native form. One of the most effective of these is a method of pluralization that generally follows a set of rules, but occasionally behaves unpredictably.


There are many ways that English manages to trip up its speakers, both native and non-native. Lastly, octopodes stems from the belief that because octopus is originally Greek, it should have a Greek ending. Octopuses is the next plural, which gives the word an English ending to match its adoption as an English word. Octopi is the oldest plural of octopus, coming from the belief that Latin origins should have Latin endings. The three main plurals for octopus come from the different ways the English language adopts plurals.
