Word Confusion: Entitle versus Title

Third person present verb: entitles
Past tense or past participle: entitled
Present participle: entitling

Alternative spelling: intitle

Plural for the noun: titles
Gerund: titling

Third person present verb: titles
Past tense or past participle: titled
Present participle: titling

• Furnish with grounds for laying claim

Give (something, especially a text or work of art) a particular title

[Archaic] Give (someone) a specified title expressing their rank, office, or character

That decides a title

Noun:
The name of a book, composition, or other artistic work

• [Usually as titles] A caption or credit in a movie or broadcast
• A book, magazine, or newspaper considered as a publication
• A general or descriptive heading for a section of a written work
• A section or division of a subject, as of a law or a book
• [Bookbinding] The panel for the name, between the bands of the back of a book

The subject of a writing

• A short phrase that summarizes the entire topic

A written title, credit, or caption shown with a film, video, or performance

A division of an act of Congress or Parliament

[title page] The inscription in the beginning of a book, usually containing the subject of the work, the author’s and publisher’s names, the date, etc.

A name that describes someone’s position or job

• One or more words used before or after a person’s name that may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification
• A word such as Senator or Dame that is used before someone’s name, or a form that is used instead of someone’s name, to indicate high social or official rank
• A word such as Mrs. or Dr. that is used before someone’s name to indicate their profession or marital status
• A descriptive or distinctive name that is earned or chosen

The position of being the champion of a major sports competition

[Law] A right or claim to the ownership of property or to a rank or throne

An informal right to something

[In church use] A fixed sphere of work and source of income as a condition for ordination

• [Also a titular church] A parish church in Rome under a cardinal

Verb, transitive:
Give a name to (a book, composition, or other work)

• Designate by an appellation
• Entitle

Designate by an identifying term

Employees are normally entitled to severance pay.

The landlord is entitled to require references.

What was the book entitled?

There was an article entitled “The Harried Society” that sounded interesting.

Thomas Pickering, PhD, is renowned for his research into economics.

My son will be entitled as Viscount Etherby.

They entitled him Sultan.

They’re planning a title bout.

Noun:
The author and title of the book is critical for those press releases.

Section 401 of the Social Security Act (act of August 14, 1935, chapter 531) is classified to section 601 of title 42.

The title is “printed with biographical information about the author, a summary of the book from the publisher (known as a blurb) or critical praise from celebrities or authorities in the book’s subject area” (Dust).

The titles scrolled by too quickly to read.

Title II of the USA Patriot Act granted increased powers of surveillance to various government agencies and bodies in the aftermath of 9/11 (USA).

Rumbelows will get exclusive sponsorship with opening and closing titles.

The company publishes 400 titles a year.

The novel had chapter titles.

Leese assumed the title of director general.

The title page only includes the full title and the author’s name.

He will inherit the title of Duke of Marlborough.

The title Professor is reserved for one or two members of a department.

Nata’s deserves the title of Best Restaurant of the Year.

Davis won the world title for the first time in 1981.

A local family had title to the property.

The buyer acquires a good title to the merchandise.

The movie was his title to fame.

Santi Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio is the title church of Cardinal Francesco Montenegro.

“He [was] under a title when he was in Rome” (V&S).

Verb, transitive:
Did you ever hear that song titled “You Rascal, You”?

The interesting thing is that you don’t title the works until they’re complete.

Wiley customarily titles his work after the source image he has altered, while his portrait subjects remain anonymous.

The project is titled Operation Christmas Child, which in turn is a project of the Samaritans Purse.

Hadrian, having quieted the island, took it for honor to be titled on his coin, “The Restorer of Britain”.

They titled their nation “The Confederate States”.

The word originally denoted a placard or inscription placed on an object, giving information about it, hence a descriptive heading in a book or other composition.