Such as:
Octopus- Octopi or Campus- campi
2007-03-08 09:33:08 · 5 answers · asked by Tom K 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
A few:
abacus - abaci - counting frame
aureus - aurei - Roman gold coin
brontosaurus - brontosauri - a type of dinosaur
cactus - cacti - plant
cumulus - cumuli - form of fluffy white cloud, or a pile/heap
fungus - fungi - mushroom family
hippocampus - hippocampi - learning part of the brain
limbus - limbi - border, edge or limb
medius - medii - middle/third finger
nimbus - nimbi - form of dense rain cloud
patrinus - patrini - Latin for godfather
porus - pori - a pore (not like porous which is spongelike)
radius - radii - distance from centre of circle to edge
rhombus - rhombi - geometric shape
stimulus - stimuli - something that causes response
terminus - termini - the end of something
thesaurus - thesauri - book of related words
Generally any Latin based word ending in "us" will end with "i" when pluralised, though there are some exceptions, for example, octopus is not octopi, to be grammatically correct it is octopuses, campus is campuses, virus is viruses and apparatus is apparatuses. It is something to do with a word called "declension" in Latin verbs: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000813.html
You will find a lot of the words are still used in the fields of medicine/science or law.
CG.
2007-03-08 09:41:16 · answer #1 · answered by cymraesgwyllt 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cactus - cacti
Lexus - Lexi :)
Alumnus - alumni
Radius - radii
2007-03-08 09:40:24 · answer #2 · answered by Steven D 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
octopi, thesauri, radii, di
2007-03-08 09:41:17 · answer #3 · answered by Hells Bells 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
cactus-cacti
2007-03-08 09:43:16 · answer #4 · answered by mnm34 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
octopi
radii
catci
fungi
2007-03-08 09:41:22 · answer #5 · answered by marcio c 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋