I have a group with Phoenix in the title, and we aren’t sure what the plural of Phoenix should be. Phoenixes? Phoenii?
Thanks!
Phoenixes.
I don’t quite understand where the compulsion to add an “i” to the end of any vaguely exotic looking word comes from. “Virii” is a real pet hate of mine.
The Master speaks: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mplurals.html
Thanks for the response, though wading through that column is tough.
But now I know! Thanks again!
So, bibliophage is now the Master?
To summarize, phoenixes or phoenices.
Peaces.
As I remember it, the point of the phoenix myth was that there could only ever be one at a time. Like Highlander, although apparently there could be more than one of them at a time, or the movies would be boring as all hell.
Thus there couldn’t have ever been a plural of phoenix - all ancient references would have been to the phoenix.
Phoenices…just like the plural of matrix is matrices.
I find it quite serendipitous that this is part of my username.
Yes, I’ve been wanting to write “serendipitous” all day.
Bzzt! Wrong. Sadly you can’t just apply this rule to other -ix words. Consult your dictionary if in doubt. Then, if you disagree, insult it.
And BlackPheonix (sic), I bet you wish you consulted your dictionary before registering that name 
By the way, my (British) dictionary says that the accepted US spelling is “phenix”, so it’s kind of weird that the city is spelt the British way.
I’ll bet that’s how the ancient Phoenicians spelled it.
And how do you express the possessive for the city of Phoenix?
Phoenix’s ?
I didn’t discuss the plural of Phoenix in the Staff Report cited above. Phoenix is the Latin, not Greek, spelling. (The Greek transliteration would be phoinix). Phoenices is a poor choice as a Latin plural, since it implies the word is declinable. In fact, Phoenix was indeclinable, which means that it was spelled the same in all grammatical cases (nomanitive, genitive, etc.), at least in the singular. There was only one Phoenix in classical mythology so there was no particular need in Greek or Latin for a plural. A few unique mythological figures did have rare plural forms, like pegasi and venera (only in the sense of "depictions or representations of Pegasus or Venus). But Phoenix never had a plural form in Latin, as far as I know. I would go with the English style plural “Phoenixes” if I were you.
I think your dictionary is wrong. I have never seen “Phenix,” and the bird comes up fairly often in children’s books. Websters doesn’t give this even as an alternate spelling (though the American Heritage does). The word does come from “fenix” though.
What dictionary are you using?
Collins English Dictionary, sixth edition. To be fair, it gives phenix as an alternative US spelling, not the only one.
I like phœnix, but it’s a bugger to have to nudge the screen over to type the “e” so close to the “o”…
According to the SAL-9000 in 2010 Phoenix was also the instructor of Achilles.
So there IS more than one.
There’s only one at a time.
And this USn has never seen phenix.
The ancient Phoenicians didn’t speak (or write) Latin, They were a semitic people and wrote with a nice vowelless alphabet. The form of the plural would have been very much dependent on the gender of the word, if masculine, maybe the suffix -im or something like it.
Oh, could a moderator change my display name to be correct? Thanks.
I guess you’ve never heard of Phenix City, Alabama?
While the Phoenix is unique, it seems to me that she ought to be considered less unique than Pegasus. After all, one might plausibly discuss various iterations, so to speak, of the Phoenix.
And I would use “Phoenices”, by analogy with most other Latin words ending in -ix. While it’s true that the Romans never found need to pluralize the word, I think it plausible to say that that’s the way they would have, if the need arose.