A title of a work that's only one word long. Not much more to say.
If the title is a noun, it is possibly also other tropes. Titles that refer to characters either by name or by job (e.g. "Rose", which refers to the character Rose Tyler; or Bartender, which is about the bartender protagonist), they go under Character Title or Job Title, as well.
If the name is the location the work is set in, that's The Place.
Words composed of two or more words that are not usually written as one also count as examples of Portmantitle.
Subtitles do not disqualify a title from this trope.
When adding examples, please give whatever context you can, even if it's as simple as "It's called Wings because all of the main characters are associated with a flying service." Or "It's called Friends because it's about a group of friends." If Word of God or Word of Saint Paul exists for why the title was chosen, give that. Sometimes, such a short title is picked because it's memorable.
Verbed Title and Mononymous Biopic Title are subtropes. Compare to One-Letter Title and Short Titles. Contrast to The Fantastic Trope of Wonderous Titles and Long Title.
The "The" Title is for titles that start with "The".
Helpful tip for new tropers: To link to a one-word trope, enclose in curly braces: {{Trope}}. Can be embedded inside square brackets: [[{{Trope}} visible text]]. And now you know. But, please be sure you are using the proper namespace.
Example Subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Film — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Music
- Pinball
- Video Games
- Web Comics
- Western Animation
Other Examples:
open/close all folders
Asian Animation
Comic Books
- 1963
- Ant
- Blackbird
- Bone
- Catstronauts
- Chassis
- Chew: "Chew" is a homophone for "Chu," the last name of the main character who also has a superpower based around eating.
- Copperhead
- Criminal
- Descender
- Die
- Dolltopia
- Duster 2015
- Excalibur
- Farmhand
- Fatale
- Girrion
- Gunsmoke
- Halcyon
- Happy!
- Harleen
- Haunt
- Hide
- Hillbilly
- Hinterkind
- Invincible
- Irredeemable and its spinoff Incorruptable: Irredeemable is about a Superman-expy going off the deep end after accidentally going past the tipping point, and then not looking back although in the end while he can't be redeemed, by sacrificing himself he planted the seeds for redemption in a convoluted, multi-verse-y way. Incorruptable is about the opposite, a Card-Carrying Villain forced to become good because with the events of Irredeemable, the world is in too much danger for him to be eeeeeeevil.
- Kabuki
- Killtopia
- Monstress
- Nailbiter
- Neonomicon
- Owly
- Providence
- Psychonaut
- Red
- Saga
- Seconds, named after the restaurant in which most of the plot transpires. Also a Double-Meaning Title, as it's referring to both "Seconds" as in a second helping of a meal, and the idea of a second chance (as the book has a Peggy Sue plot).
- Shadowhawk
- Shadowland
- Shadowpact
- Sleepless
- Tomahawk
- Tomboy
- Trees
- Trouble
- Typhon
- Vibe
- Watchmen: The comic takes its name from the quote "who watches the watchmen?" which refers to both the notion of the protectors needing protection, and the protectors abusing their protectorate.
- Yellowjacket
- Zero
- Zion
Comic Strips
Fan Works
- The Back to the Future fanfic Homecoming.
- A good amount of Calvin and Hobbes: The Series' episode titles, especially in Season 4:
- "Chains"
- "Hypercube"
- "Surge"
- "Invasion"
- "Pug" (the pug's real name is Tug)
- "Hero"
- "Repeat"
- "Remember"
- "Karma"
- The unused ideas chapter includes several more, such as "Cowpokes", "Toboggan", "Claustrophobia", "Monophobia", "Alternate", and "Freudian".
- The The Lord of the Rings fanfic Left.
- The Massive Multiplayer Crossover series by Sovereign GFC lands square in this trope:
- The Star Trek: The Original Series fanfics:
- Then there's the Star Trek: The Next Generation fic Paradise
. Its chapters so far are:
- Arrival
- Paradise
- Home
- Shadows (Announced by the Author, unpublished.)
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Anthropology
- Austraeoh: All of its chapters. Here are the first few: "Sunrise", "Map", "Food", "Flash", "Spring", "Cabin", "Cave", "Limestone" etc.
- Caretakers
- Forever
- Oversaturated World: Some of its stories, and some of the chapters of some stories:
- The initial story, Oversaturation, whose nine chapters feature Idiosyncratic Episode Naming by all relating to color, and all of them being examples as well: Neutrals, Tones, Brightness, Secondaries, Clashing, Contrast, Running, Spectrum, and Light.
- Sugarcatharsis
- Enthralled
- Group Precipitation has some of its chapters exhibit this: Xenocurious, and Metamorphosis, Supernal, Glamourous, Rutaceae, Recharging, Rapturous, Passion, and Zapostate. Depending on how dashes are interpreted, possibly also Chibi-Doosa, Re-markable, Fixer-Upper, and All-natural
- Criffleball
- Triptych Continuum: Some of its stories, and some of the chapters of some stories:
- The initial story, Triptych, whose, currently 31, chapters feature Idiosyncratic Episode Naming, with most of them being examples as well, and all being terms related to art: Outlines, Palette, Shading, Angles, Landscape, Layering... The ones which aren't examples of this trope are: Chapter 13: Morellian Analysis, Chapter 15: En Plein Air and Chapter 26: Earth Tones.
- Scootalift
- In conjunction with Excited Show Title!: Goosed!
- Blessing
- Unnoticed
- The initial story, Triptych, whose, currently 31, chapters feature Idiosyncratic Episode Naming, with most of them being examples as well, and all being terms related to art: Outlines, Palette, Shading, Angles, Landscape, Layering... The ones which aren't examples of this trope are: Chapter 13: Morellian Analysis
- Variables
- Quizzical: It's a Protagonist Title as well, named for Quizzical Greystone.
- Enough
- Intercom
- The Elemental Chess Trilogy:
- Brilliancy
- Triumvirate
- Chronology
- Cinderjuice
- Ripples
- Kage
- Skyhold Academy Yearbook includes Disorienuptials, which is also a Portmantitle and a Double-Meaning Title.
- Forever!
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: There's a few chapters named that way, such as:
- Recovering: About recovering from the Reaper duel.
- Deadline, which is also a Portmantitle, and is about the deadline to rescue some sacrifices.
- Ultimatum, where one is given.
- Recovering
- Canterlot Deportation Agency: Soul Survivor: All three of the chapter titles:
- The Smallville fanfic series "Influence", named because of the main character making a life-changing choice under the influence of a mind-altering substance.
- Worm stories Atonement and Intrepid.
- Spider-Man/Batman crossover "Displaced" has Spider-Man trapped in The DCU.
- Hellsister Trilogy: The first and third arcs of this Supergirl series are named "Hellsister" -after the main character's evil counterpart- and "Hellspawn" -after her evil twin's son-.
- Naruto fanfiction Echoes.
- Warhammer 40,000 story Toyhammer, where the main character's Warhammer toys become alive.
- Arrowverse fanfiction Survivors, featuring the last children of Krypton.
- Sunsplit Saga: The title for each of the Saga's stories, Sunsplit, Sunspawned, Sunshipped, and Sunscarred, presumably to reference the principal characters, whose names start with "Sun", and as an Idiosyncratic Episode Naming Portmantitle pattern.
- The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments': Vision'', a The Place title, for the city it takes place in.
Film — Animation
- Abominable
- Anomalisa
- Antz: It's a movie about ants. The "z" in the title isn't just Xtreme Kool Letterz but also a reference to "A-to-Z."
- Beowulf
- Brave: Brave is presumably named for the emotion, displayed by its protagonist, Merida, given the Title Drop:
Merida: Fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it.
- Cars: Set in a world of anthropomorphized cars.
- Coco: A Secondary Character Title, named for protagonist Miguel's great-grandmother, whose history is relevant to the plot of the movie.
- From the Disney Animated Canon:
- Aladdin: Protagonist Title.
- Bambi: Protagonist Title.
- Bolt: Protagonist Title.
- Cinderella: Protagonist Title.
- Dinosaur
- Dumbo: Protagonist Title.
- Fantasia In music, a ""Fantasia" is a selection of popular tunes woven into a loosely bound composition. The film is a group of separate animated shorts, each one inspired by a popular classical music composition.
- Frozen (2013)
- Hercules: Protagonist Title.
- Moana: Protagonist Title.
- Mulan: Protagonist Title.
- Pinocchio: Protagonist Title.
- Pocahontas: Protagonist Title.
- Tangled: An example of the Sub-Trope Verbed Title, but the Working Title was originally going to go with an example of both this and Protagonist Title, Rapunzel, until late in production.'
- Tarzan: Protagonist Title.
- Zootopia: It's a world of animals.
- Epic
- Ferdinand
- Home
- Hop: A reference to the rabbit protagonist.
- Madagascar
- Minions
- Onward
- ParaNorman: Also an example of a Portmantitle, made of "Paranormal" + "Norman", and the Epunymous Protagonist Title references the protagonist, Norman, and his paranormal ability to speak to the dead.
- Ratatouille
- Renaissance
- Robots
- Rio
- Shrek: Protagonist Title.
- Sing
- Storks
- Trolls
- Turbo
- Up
Manhwa
Myths & Religion
- Theogony
- Ramayana
- Mahabharata
- Dianetics
- The Bible: Many of its internal Books, when discussed, usually omit the "Book of", such as the Book of Genesis, Book of Exodus, and the Book of Judges.
- The Qur'an: Again, depending on if the "The" is omitted.
Poetry
- Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and "Kaddish"
- Gregory Corso's "Gasoline," "Bomb" and "Marriage"
- Percy Bysshe Shelley's Mutability and Ozymandias.
- William Blake's London.
Theatre
- 1776
- 9
- Aladdin
- Alegría
- Allegiance
- Allegro
- Amour
- Annie
- Applause
- Arcadia
- Art
- Assassins: The main characters are people who have killed, or tried to kill, an American president.
- Atlantis: Also The Place. The play is based on the myth of Atlantis.
- Baby
- Ballroom
- Bandstand
- Barnum
- Bash
- Beetlejuice
- Betrayal
- Brigadoon
- Cabaret
- Camelot
- Candide
- Carousel
- Cats All of the characters are cats, based on poems from T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's book of Practical Cats
- Chess
- Chicago
- Coco
- Company
- Comus: The full title is thirty-three words long, but is obviously more commonly known by the name of the antagonist.
- Contact
- Cosi" About the staging of Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte in a mental hospital.
- Curtains
- Dancin
- Drakula
- Dreamgirls
- Drood
- Equus
- Eugenius!
- Evita
- Falsettos
- Fela
- Fences
- Finale
- Fiorello!
- Follies
- Fools: A play about a town cursed with stupidity.
- Fosse
- Frozen
- Godspell
- Grease
- Grind
- Gypsy
- Hadestown
- Hair
- Hairspray
- Hamilton, although it's sometimes accompanied by the sub-title An American Musical.
- HONK!
- Icebound
- Jamaica
- Kismet
- Luv
- Macbeth
- Mame
- Majora
- Manfred
- Merlin
- Nerds
- Newsies
- Nunsense
- Oklahoma!
- Oliver!
- Once
- Parade
- Passion
- Picnic
- Pippin
- Purlie
- Quilters
- Rags
- Ragtime
- Raisin
- Redhead
- RENT: One of the major plotlines involves Mark and Roger being forced to pay rent on the apartment in which they have formerly lived rent-free.
- Rhinoceros: Over the course of three acts, the inhabitants of a small, provincial French town turn into rhinoceroses.
- Rumors
- Runaways
- Sarafina
- Seascape
- Schikaneder
- Seesaw
- Seussical: A musical based on the works of Dr. Seuss.
- Shenandoah
- Sinderella: An adults-only version of Cinderella.
- Skyscraper
- Sleuth
- Sonny
- Spamalot
- Starmites: The Starmites are the punk guardians of the universe. No, really.
- Starship
- Sugar
- Swing
- Tintypes
- Titanic
- Tootsie
- Urinetown
- Waitress: Refers to the protagonists's profession
- Wicked
- Winterset
- Wit
- Xanadu
- Zorba
Theme Parks
- At the Disney Theme Parks:
- At SeaWorld:
- Kraken
- Mako
- Manta
- At Universal Studios:
- Accelerator
- Backdraft
- Disaster!
- Doomsday
- Grinchmas
- Horrorwood
- Insanity
- Jaws
- Kongfrontation
Toys
Web Animation
- Chadam is a Protagonist Title.
- Kiwi!: The cartoon is about a small kiwi bird trying to achieve its tragic dream.
- Siblings
- Sonic
- SMG4's Mario Bloopers:
- "Dreams"
- "Flashbacks"
- "Ssenmodnar"
- "Mineswap"
- "Yoshrooms"
- The Misadventures of R2 and Miku:
- "Disease"
- "Clones"
- "Appendix"
Web Original
- Aventures and Starventures
- Camdrome, so named after the main focus of the game, the evil AI known as Camdrome.
- CLW Entertainment: The video "Thumbs".
- Dad, named after the main character "Dad" and focusing on him and his family.
- Noob
- Pikasprey, which is the nickname of the series creator.
- Seriesly
- Versus
- Whateley Universe: The Generation 2 story, Hunger, about a character afflicted with a supernatural hunger.
