[Sidenote:  Means plural.]

Two words, means and politics, may be plural in their
construction with verbs and adjectives:—­

     Words, by strongly conveying the passions, by those means which
     we have already mentioned, fully compensate for their weakness in
     other respects.—­BURKE.

     With great dexterity these means were now applied.—­MOTLEY.

     By these means, I say, riches will accumulate.—­GOLDSMITH.

[Sidenote:  Politics plural.]

     Cultivating a feeling that politics are tiresome.—­G.W.  CURTIS.

     The politics in which he took the keenest interest were
     politics scarcely deserving of the name.—­MACAULAY.

     Now I read all the politics that come out.—­GOLDSMITH.

46.  Some words have no corresponding singular.

aborigines amends annals assets antipodes scissors thanks spectacles vespers victuals matins nuptials oats obsequies premises bellows billiards dregs gallows tongs

[Sidenote:  Occasionally singular words.]

Sometimes, however, a few of these words have the construction of singular nouns.  Notice the following:—­

     They cannot get on without each other any more than one blade of
     a scissors can cut without the other.—­J.L.  LAUGHLIN.

     A relic which, if I recollect right, he pronounced to have been
     a tongs.—­IRVING.

     Besides this, it is furnished with a forceps.—­GOLDSMITH.

     The air,—­was it subdued when...the wind was trained only to turn
     a windmill, carry off chaff, or work in a bellows?—­PROF.  DANA.

In Early Modern English thank is found.

     What thank have ye?—­Bible

47.  Three words were originally singular, the present ending _-s_ not being really a plural inflection, but they are regularly construed as plural:  alms, eaves, riches.

[Sidenote:  two plurals.]

48.  A few nouns have two plurals differing in meaning.

  brother—­brothers (by blood), brethren (of a society or church).

  cloth—­cloths (kinds of cloth), clothes (garments).

  die—­dies (stamps for coins, etc.), dice (for gaming).

  fish—­fish (collectively), fishes (individuals or kinds).

  genius—­geniuses (men of genius), genii (spirits).

  index—­indexes (to books), indices (signs in algebra).

  pea—­peas (separately), pease (collectively).

  penny—­pennies (separately), pence (collectively).

  shot—­shot (collective balls), shots (number of times fired).

In speaking of coins, twopence, sixpence, etc., may add _-s_, making a double plural, as two sixpences.