#Plural of Cyclops Confirmed in Case You Get Stuck in an X-Men Multiverse

The biggest question regarding Scott Summers aka Cyclops from Marvel Comics isn’t whether he can beat Captain America in a fight, or why Jean Grey never dumped him in favor of Wolverine. It is ‘how do you pronounce the pluralization of Cyclops?’ Okay, maybe it’s not the biggest question, but some random fan might have wondered about it at some point. For those fans, Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s Twitter account issued a helpful message, along with a link to a page on their website explaining the rule of pluralization for the leader of the X-Men.

You might not think this is an urgent read, but what if you get stuck in the X-Men multiverse? You’ll be glad you did. https://t.co/blkvyXF3Hh

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 23, 2020

“You might not think this is an urgent read, but what if you get stuck in the X-Men multiverse? You’ll be glad you did.”

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So what would you say if you wanted to refer to a bunch of mutants shooting lasers out of their visors? According to the dictionary, you refer to them as “Cyclopes”. Not Cyclopses, nor “Cyclopsii”, and definitely not “Byclops”, as one fan helpfully suggested. The Merriam-Webster dictionary page goes deeper into the explanation.

“Unlike most rules of pluralization, the plural of Cyclops is Cyclopes. Instead of adding es to Cyclops, the plural is adapted from the Latin based singular Ciclope or Cyclope, and thus the plural became Cyclopes. With that grammar laid out, the plural of Cyclops, which is a proper noun ending in -s that denotes a mythical giant creature, should be either Cyclopses or Cyclops-but usage evidence doesn’t concur. The most common plural form of Cyclops (which is now frequently found in lowercase) is Cyclopes (pronounced sye-KLOH-peez).”

In case you’re wondering why there would ever be a need for referring to multiple Cyclopes, keep in mind we’re talking about the comic book realm here. As a superhero, it would be highly unusual if you are not at some point in the week battling your evil clone, or yourself from the future, or an alternate version of you from another dimension. In such scenarios, learning to refer to multiple versions of the same person can be quite helpful.

Sadly, being mentioned by a dictionary website is the closest that Cyclops has come in recent times to breaking into the pop-culture consciousness. Despite being billed as the leader of the X-Men, and dating some of the hottest mutants in all of comics, Scott Summers has never managed to attain the kind of popularity that comes so easily to his shorter, hairier colleague Logan aka Wolverine.

Not that Marvel has not tried to boost Scott’s profile in their animations and movies, all of which have featured the character prominently for decades. With the X-Men gearing up for their MCU debut, Cyclops fans are hoping to see the character attain a greater prominence, now that Hugh Jackman has finally stepped away from his scene-stealing role as Wolverine.

For now, Merriam-Webster might want to make a similar page for the plural of Batman and Spider-Man, since both characters are rumored to have upcoming movies featuring multiple actors playing the roles of the Dark Knight and the webbed wall-crawler, in the solo Flash movie, and Spider-Man 3. This comes direct from merriam-webster.com.

Topics: X-Men