Statuses or status? Reader’s question: What is the correct plural of status?

Answer: Pam Peters, The Cambridge
Guide to English Usage, says:

‘In English usage status has both an
anglicized plural statuses and the
(zero) plural status. The second results from
its being a Latin fourth declension noun … but also correlates with
English use of the word as a mass noun, as in considering
their relative status.’

So status and statuses can
both be used as the plural, depending on the context,
but status is more common.

The survey considered participants’ viewpoints, social status
and demographics.
The survey considered participants’ viewpoints, social statuses and
demographics.

Statii and stati are not plurals
of status!

Other -us Latin fourth declension nouns
include: apparatus, census, hiatus, nexus, prospectus,
sinus. 

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