Get Taxonomy Labels

Property	Value
description	Get singular or plural labels for a taxonomy.
tags	lib, php, wp, oop
rating

Human: 3 - Mixed authorship

Roughly half AI, half human. Core content reviewed, but minor risk remains.

Overview

Get the singular or plural label for a taxonomy. The procedural helper accepts a taxonomy slug and defaults to category.

Supported label types:

• singular: returns labels like Category, Tag, or Product category.
• plural: returns labels like Categories, Tags, or Product categories.

Pass a fallback string when you want a custom value for missing or invalid taxonomies. The OOP variant also accepts a term ID or WP_Term object for the singular/plural convenience wrappers.

Variants

Procedural

Add Macro

Add wp-get-taxonomy-labels macro.

<?php
/**
 * Get taxonomy label.
 *
 * Args:
 * taxonomy -> default = category
 * type     -> singular | plural (default = singular)
 * fallback -> optional override
 *
 * Examples:
 * mac_get_taxonomy_label();
 * mac_get_taxonomy_label( 'post_tag', 'plural' );
 *
 * @param string $taxonomy Taxonomy slug.
 * @param string $type     Label type: singular or plural.
 * @param string $fallback Optional fallback label.
 * @return string
 */

if ( ! function_exists( 'mac_get_taxonomy_label' ) ) {

    function mac_get_taxonomy_label( string $taxonomy = 'category', string $type = 'singular', string $fallback = '' ): string {

        $taxonomy = sanitize_key( $taxonomy );
        $type     = strtolower( trim( $type ) );
        $type     = $type === 'plural' ? 'plural' : 'singular';

        if ( $taxonomy === '' || ! taxonomy_exists( $taxonomy ) ) {
            return $fallback ?: ( 'plural' === $type ? 'Terms' : 'Term' );
        }

        $tx = get_taxonomy( $taxonomy );

        if ( ! $tx || empty( $tx->labels ) ) {
            return $fallback ?: ( 'plural' === $type ? 'Terms' : 'Term' );
        }

        if ( 'plural' === $type ) {
            return $tx->labels->name ?: ( $fallback ?: 'Terms' );
        }

        return $tx->labels->singular_name ?: ( $fallback ?: 'Term' );
    }
}

OOP

Add Macro

Add wp-get-taxonomy-labels--oop macro.

<?php
/**
 * Taxonomy label helpers.
 *
 * @package mac-core
 */

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace MacCore\Utils {

use WP_Taxonomy;
use WP_Term;

/**
 * Taxonomy label helpers.
 */
final class GetTaxonomyLabels
{
    /**
     * Get a singular or plural label for a taxonomy.
     *
     * @param int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax Taxonomy slug, term ID, term object, or null for category.
     */
    public static function get(
        int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax = 'category',
        string $type = 'singular',
        string $fallback = ''
    ): string {
        $type = \strtolower( \trim( $type ) );
        $type = $type === 'plural' ? 'plural' : 'singular';

        $taxonomy = self::resolveTaxonomySlug( $termOrTax );

        if ( $taxonomy === null ) {
            return $fallback !== '' ? $fallback : ( $type === 'plural' ? 'Terms' : 'Term' );
        }

        $object = \get_taxonomy( $taxonomy );

        if ( ! $object instanceof WP_Taxonomy ) {
            return $fallback !== '' ? $fallback : ( $type === 'plural' ? 'Terms' : 'Term' );
        }

        if ( $type === 'plural' ) {
            $label = (string) ( $object->labels->name ?? '' );
            return $label !== '' ? $label : ( $fallback !== '' ? $fallback : 'Terms' );
        }

        $label = (string) ( $object->labels->singular_name ?? '' );
        return $label !== '' ? $label : ( $fallback !== '' ? $fallback : 'Term' );
    }

    /**
     * @param int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax
     */
    public static function singular( int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax = 'category', string $fallback = '' ): string
    {
        return self::get( $termOrTax, 'singular', $fallback );
    }

    /**
     * @param int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax
     */
    public static function plural( int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax = 'category', string $fallback = '' ): string
    {
        return self::get( $termOrTax, 'plural', $fallback );
    }

    /**
     * @param int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax
     */
    private static function resolveTaxonomySlug( int|string|WP_Term|null $termOrTax = 'category' ): ?string
    {
        if ( $termOrTax instanceof WP_Term ) {
            $taxonomy = \sanitize_key( (string) $termOrTax->taxonomy );
            return $taxonomy !== '' && \taxonomy_exists( $taxonomy ) ? $taxonomy : null;
        }

        if ( \is_int( $termOrTax ) || ( \is_string( $termOrTax ) && \is_numeric( $termOrTax ) ) ) {
            $term = \get_term( (int) $termOrTax );

            if ( $term instanceof WP_Term ) {
                $taxonomy = \sanitize_key( (string) $term->taxonomy );
                return $taxonomy !== '' && \taxonomy_exists( $taxonomy ) ? $taxonomy : null;
            }

            return null;
        }

        if ( $termOrTax === null || $termOrTax === '' ) {
            $termOrTax = 'category';
        }

        $taxonomy = \sanitize_key( (string) $termOrTax );

        return $taxonomy !== '' && \taxonomy_exists( $taxonomy ) ? $taxonomy : null;
    }
}

}

namespace {

if ( ! function_exists( 'mac_get_taxonomy_label' ) ) {
    function mac_get_taxonomy_label( string $taxonomy = 'category', string $type = 'singular', string $fallback = '' ): string
    {
        return \MacCore\Utils\GetTaxonomyLabels::get( $taxonomy, $type, $fallback );
    }
}

if ( ! function_exists( 'mac_get_taxonomy_singular' ) ) {
    function mac_get_taxonomy_singular( int|string|\WP_Term|null $term_or_tax = 'category', string $fallback = '' ): string
    {
        return \MacCore\Utils\GetTaxonomyLabels::singular( $term_or_tax, $fallback );
    }
}

if ( ! function_exists( 'mac_get_taxonomy_plural' ) ) {
    function mac_get_taxonomy_plural( int|string|\WP_Term|null $term_or_tax = 'category', string $fallback = '' ): string
    {
        return \MacCore\Utils\GetTaxonomyLabels::plural( $term_or_tax, $fallback );
    }
}

}