Make Your Editor Cry: Antenna (Awkward Plural)
BLUF: (Bottom Line Up Front)
The plural of antenna is antennae or antennas.
antenna: one of a pair of slender, movable, segmented sensory organs on the head of insects, myriapods, and crustaceans: a usually metallic device, such as a rod or wire, for radiating or receiving radio waves
The singular of antenna is antenna. The plural of antenna is antennae or less commonly antennas. The noun antenna has a Latin root, which is the derivation of the plural antennae. Through common usage, antennas (which conforms to the standard rules for forming plurals) is also now acceptable.
But it shouldn’t be. Heh.
Example:
Antennae are used for sensing in arthropods.
Crustaceans bear two pairs of antennae.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.