As a native greek speaker, I find anything other than "octopuses" to be silly. In greek we don't say (any more) octopodes, we say "chtapodia" (the "ch" is the canonical (ELOT) transliteration of the letter Ο).
this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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Just like meese is the plural of moose
No cheeses for us meeces :(
Or: Mouse - mice; house - hice
I actually love octopods. Somehow sounds the least weird of them all.
Level 10: all forms are valid as long as enough people use them. The currently most used forms are octopuses and octopi, both valid, but octopi is malformed, so octopuses is preferred. Octopussses and octopii and rare variants of those. Also correct, but rarely used.
Octopodes is also correct, but considered pedantic.
Level 11: Just use what you are used to.
Level ATF&C: Glob
Octopodes, pronounced oc-top-o-dees, not oc-to-po-des. Like Hercules.
Also, using the I ending to pluralize us endings comes out of an attempted prescriptive reform of English in the late 1800s to make it more like Latin. We still use es endings to pluralize us singulars most of the time, the places where we use I are ether direct usages of Latin words or remnants of that prescriptive push.
Confused Squidward noises.
Your prof is Roger Moore?
I always say 'I saw some octopus'
Also, moose is plural for moose.
One of my favorite things in life is using Latin or Greek plurals on words that it makes absolutely no sense to use them on, and do not follow the rules of any language naturally involved.
I had steak and potati for dinner last night. Just one steak, though, I cannot eat multiple steakices
I can eat all the steak ices.
Reminds me of a joke:
A Roman soldier walks into a bar and says, "I'll have a martinus"
Bartender says, "don't you mean a martini?"
The Roman says. "if I wanted more than one I would've asked for it!"
I also do this! My personal top 3 are:
Jesus - Jesi
Bus - Bi
Penis - Penorum
Penis - Penorum
WROOOOONG! Now write the full declension table on that wall. And make sure to draw some pictures with it, so you never forget the word! :-p
It's the genitive! Genitive! Which makes the plural.. um! Penum! Penum! Romanorum penum amplitudines non magni sunt!
c===3, c===3, c===3.
Poetry was made today.
People called Romanes, they go, the house?!
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For decades now, my wife and I have used "Kleeni" as the plural of "Kleenex".
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2Ο: two pi
Ο: one pus
I thought it was octopuxen?
Octopodes nuts
I do like octopods. I will use that from now on and you can't stop me.
Nobody tell them about level 8
Its whatever your heart is telling you.
Four Loko was the start and eventual downfall of many wild and ultimately regrettable times.
I tried it before they banned caffeinated alcohol here and holy fuck that shit was chaos in a can
Yeah, that is an accurate description. A couple four loko could make your evening into a Fear and Loathing style event worthy of legend.
Any mistake I make is actually just my dialect
Don't bother correcting my English grammar, as I have no respect for this language <3
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American English: "All of the above are valid."
"Even 'octopussies?'"
American English: "...sure."
Aham, there's some precedent
There is a difference in Octopussys here. One is slippery, the other is not.
"even 'octopussies'?"
american english:
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It's technically octopods
This is true for the scientific sense that it's order Octopoda (e.g. the plural for members of Hexapoda is "hexapods" and likewise "decapods" for Decapoda), but then it's kind of like saying the plural for "lobster" is "nephropids". The names are close for Octopoda and octopus, but it's still taking the colloquial name and pluralizing it into its scientific name. It's not specifically "to bring it in line with cephalopod"; that's just how generic names of members of taxa ending in 'poda' work generally.
Strictly speaking, "octopods" is the plural of "octopod".
Once I learned that βoctopodesβ is pronounced oct-TOP-o-dees not OCT-uh-pohds it became my pluralization of choice.
I hadn't even thought about that, it makes total since being derived from Greek. I am now fully on team octopodes.
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