Talk:apparatus

Plural
Apparatuses and Apparatus are both correct for plurals, why no Apparati? Does it come from a 4th declension noun in Latin, not a 2nd declension? Or just because?

Thanks.


 * Yes, it comes form a fourth-declension noun in Latin. —Muke Tever 22:35, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Because it is English not Latin and therefore takes an English plural.


 * No, apparatus is the Latin plural, and apparatuses is the English one.  —Muke Tever 22:35, 18 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I've never seen apparatus as a self-plural in English. I came here to ask whether it's right. Equinox ◑ 19:57, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Older usage
This was what was there, and was further down in the list. It makes sense to move the oldest and most general defintion to the top. Yes?


 * 1) a given system of procedures for accomplishing a certain goal

I went through this as a first iteration of revising the older usage:


 * 1) the entirety of means whereby a specific process or task is accomplished

I comment here because, well, the word is almost never used this way and I don't have a lot of experience with it.

--kop 02:54, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Inaccurate "rare" notation on pronunciation?
Hey, I had a look at the IPA pronunciations given for English, and the "rare" pronunciation /æ.pəˈɹæ.təs/ is actually the only one that I've heard. Perhaps more convincingly, it's also the closest match to the US recording given, where the vowels are clearly low-front, schwa, low-front, schwa. Seems to me like that pronunciation should have the "rare" notation removed from it, since it seems to be the prevalent one in the US. Anyone else? - 169.233.49.156 05:59, 31 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree, and have removed that annotation now. Thanks! —Ruakh TALK 01:56, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Invariant Noun
Since one of the plural forms of the word is the same as the singular, I think this should be added to the Invariant Nouns category here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_invariant_nouns. I don't know how to do this though, editing Wikis is not something I know how to do.

plural: apparātūs
Sometimes the Latin is spelled singular apparātus and plural apparātūs; the vowel lengthens in the plural, but that's not usually reflected in the spelling.

Apparatus is often treated as a uncountable noun: one apparatus, two pieces of apparatus --Backinstadiums (talk) 09:31, 14 November 2020 (UTC)