American and British English spelling differences

The differences in the spellings of British English and American English are as follows:

Many of the differences were introduced into the United States by Noah Webster's dictionary; he was a strong proponent of spelling reform for a variety of reasons, both nationalistic and philosophical. There were many advocates of spelling reform in England as well, but the influences of those who preferred the Norman (or French) spellings of certain words proved decisive. Some of the changes in American spelling were largely phonemic, while others involved the restoration of "etymologically correct" Latin (or Greek) spellings, often to words which English had borrowed from French (or indirectly, Greek) – color, Gk.διαλογος → Fr. couleur, dialogue → British English colour, dialogue. At the time, spelling in English was not regular, and Webster was eager to distinguish American usage from British usage – and in some cases to create distinctions. Although many of Webster's spellings became standardized in the U.S., only a few spread to other English-speaking countries, which were more influenced by Samuel Johnson's dictionary. (Webster's more radical suggestions for spelling reform made in his younger days, such as the dropping of silent "e" at the end of words, were adopted nowhere.) However, in some cases the American versions have become common Commonwealth usage, such as 'disk' in the sense of magnetic digital media.

Spelling and pronunciation

In a few miscellaneous cases, essentially the same word has a different spelling which reflects a different pronunciation:

Commonwealth	America	Remarks
aluminium	aluminum	The Commonwealth spelling is the international standard in the sciences (IUPAC), although many American scientists use the American spelling.
arse(hole)	ass(hole)	In vulgar senses "buttocks" ("anus"/"wretch"); unrelated sense "donkey" is ass in both. "Arsehole" can be heard in parts of New England.
behove	behoove
carburettor	carburetor	The Commonwealth pronunciation stresses the third syllable; the American stresses the first.
charivari	shivaree	Charivari also occurs in America, with varying pronunciations.
coupé	coupe	for a 2-door car; unrelated "cup"/"bowl" is always coupe.
fillet	filet	Filet retains its French pronunciation. Fillet also occurs in America.
haulier	hauler	Haulier is restricted to sense "haulage contractor."
maths	math	Abbreviations of mathematics.
moustache	mustache	The Commonwealth spelling is often found in America, though not the pronunciation.
mum(my)	mom(my)	In U.S. Mom(my) is only in sense "mother" (For example, "preserved corpse" is mummy; "silent" is mum).
papier-mâché	paper-mâché	Both forms can occur in both regions.
pernickety	persnickety
pyjamas	pajamas	The Commonwealth pronunciation is common in America, though the spelling is usually changed.
quin	quint	Abbreviations of quintuplet.
routeing	routing	As the present participle of route, to avoid confusion with rout. British English makes a phonemic distinction; General American English does not, though Northeastern and Southern dialects do.
scallywag	scalawag	Both forms can occur in American English.
snigger	snicker	Both forms can occur in both regions. The previous can cause offence in America due to the similarity to nigger
speciality	specialty	In British English, specialty occurs mainly the field of Medicine. It is also a legal term for a contract under seal.
titbit	tidbit
yoghurt	yogurt	The <gh> double consonant reflects a preceding "short O" vowel; the American single-consonant reflects a "long O". Both spellings and pronunciations occur in both regions.

Latin-derived spellings

-our / -or

Most words ending in unstressed -our in the Commonwealth end in -or in the U.S. For example, in American English, one would use color, flavor, honor, whereas in Commonwealth English one would usually use colour, flavour and honour, although -or endings are occasionally found in Canada and Australia. In addition, American English uses "o" in derivatives and inflected forms such as favorite, savory, whereas this is favourite, savoury in Commonwealth English. Note that savoury only applies to the meaning ‘tasty’; the herb is (summer) savory in all spellings. One seeming exception (the word comes from Scots, not Latin or French) to this distinction is glamour, usually spelled thusly in the U.S. (and always elsewhere). Squalor is accepted as being correctly spelled in both languages. The word saviour, which has retained the u in the Commonwealth because of the preceding i, can be spelled as such in the U.S. as well. In both systems, the adjectival forms that end in -ous are spelled without the u in the stem (for example, glamorous, vigorous, humorous and laborious) as are certain other compounds (invigorate, humorist but (Commonwealth) colourist). Noah Webster believed this resulted in unnecessary complexity, since with most words in British usage, one can't simply add -ous or -ist to the noun to create the adjective, one must first subtract the u (which one must do only with a few words in American English). Words in which the stress falls on the "our", such as hour, our, flour, velour, and sour, are the same in both usages. Also note that words with Latin-derived agentive endings, such as professor and conductor, now never end in -our or -eur (historically -our was more common, for example, chancellour and governour), despite the corresponding French forms professeur and conducteur.

-re / -er

In Commonwealth English, some words of French or Greek origin end with a consonant followed by -re, with the -re unstressed and pronounced [ə(r)]. Most of these words have the ending -er in the U.S. This is especially true of endings -bre and -tre: fibre/fiber, sabre/saber, centre/center (though some places in the United States have "Centre" in their names), spectre/specter (though spectre is acceptable in the U.S.). Theatre has started to take on a different meaning from theater in the U.S. The latter is a more general term, the former tends to be applied to live theatrical performances (i.e., not films). Macabre is an exception, perhaps because in the U.S., the word is regarded as French, and is even pronounced as a French word, if the final syllable is pronounced at all. The ending -cre is retained in America: acre, massacre, and so on; this prevents the c losing its hard k sound. There are not many other -re endings, even in Commonwealth English: louvre, manoeuvre, meagre, ochre, ogre, sepulchre, and euchre. In the U.S., ogre and euchre are standard, manoeuvre and sepulchre are usually maneuver and sepulcher, and the other -re forms listed are variants of the equivalent -er form.

Of course the above relates to root words; -er rather than -re is universal as a suffix for agentive (reader, winner) and comparative (louder, nicer) forms. One consequence is the Commonwealth distinction of meter for a measuring instrument from metre for the unit of measurement. However, while poetic metre is often -re, pentameter, hexameter, etc. are always -er.

The e preceding the r is retained in U.S. derived forms of nouns and verbs, for example, fibers, reconnoitered, centering, which are, naturally, fibres, reconnoitred and centring respectively in Commonwealth English. It is dropped for other inflections, for example, central, fibrous, spectral. However such dropping cannot be regarded as proof of an -re Commonwealth spelling: for example, entry derives from enter, which is never spelled entre.

-ce / -se

Nouns ending in -ce with -se verb forms: American English retains the noun/verb distinction in advice / advise and device / devise (pronouncing them differently), but has lost the same distinction with licence / license and practice / practise that British English retains. American English uses practice and license for both meanings. Also, Commonwealth defence, offence, pretence; American defense, offense, pretense: but compounds such as defensive, offensive, pretension, pretentious are always thus spelled.

-xion / -ction

The spellings connexion, inflexion, deflexion, reflexion are now somewhat rare, perhaps understandably as their stems are connect, inflect, deflect, and reflect and there are many such words in English that result in a -tion ending. The more common connection, inflection, deflection, reflection have almost become the standard internationally.

However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists the older spellings as the etymological form, since these four words actually derive from the Latin root -xio.

In both forms, complexion is used in preference to complection, as it comes from the stem complex in British and in American English, although one sees both "complected as in dark-complected", and "complexioned", with about the same frequency. The words crucifix and crucifixion are also the same. (Etymologically, the spelling crucifiction would in any case mean not “fixing to a cross” (Lat. figere) but “moulding into a cross” (Lat. fingere)). British Methodism retains the eighteenth century spelling "connexion" to describe its national organisation, for historical reasons, and this spelling has also found favour amongst recent government initiatives such as connexions (the national careers and training scheme for school early leavers). Until around 1984 and 1985, The Times of London also used "connexion" as part of its house style.

Greek-derived spellings

-ise / -ize

American spelling accepts only organize, recognize, and realize. British usage accepts both the older -ize form and the frenchified -ise form (organise, recognise, realise); however, the -ize spelling is rarely used in the UK in the mass media and newspapers, which is why it is often incorrectly regarded as an Americanism [1], although it is preferred by most authoritative British sources, including the Oxford English Dictionary and Fowler's Modern English Usage. The -ise form is used by the British government and taught in the British school system, and is more prevalent in common usage within the UK today. Pam Peters (2004, -ize/-ise), drawing on British National Corpus data, asserts that the ratio of popularity in Britain between -ise and -ize currently stands at 3:2. In Australia and New Zealand -ise spellings are strongly preferred; the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, among other sources, gives the -ise spelling first. Conversely, Canadian usage is essentially like American, although -ise is occasionally found in Canada. The same pattern applies to derivatives and inflections such as colonisation/colonization. Worldwide, using -ize in combination with British spelling is common in academic publishing (e.g. used in the science journal Nature, the WHO's ICD and ISO standards).

Endings in -yze are now found only in the U.S. and Canada. Thus, Commonwealth (including sometimes Canada) analyse, catalyse, hydrolyse, paralyse; North American analyze, catalyze, hydrolyze, paralyze. It is worth noting, however, that analyse was commonly spelled analyze from the first—a spelling also accepted by Samuel Johnson; the word, which came probably from French analyser, on Greek analogy would have been analysize, from French analysiser, of which analyser was practically a shortened form.

Note that not all spellings are interchangeable; some verbs take the -z- form exclusively, for instance capsize, seize (except in the legal phrase to be seised of/to stand seised to), size and prize (only in the "appraise" sense), whereas others take only -s-: advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disguise, and televise. Finally, the verb prise (meaning to force or lever) is spelled prize in the U.S. and prise anywhere else, including Canada.

-ogue / -og

Commonwealth analogue, catalogue, dialogue; American analog, catalog, dialog; and inflected forms: American cataloging, Commonwealth cataloguing. This applies with any consistency only to the various words ending in -log(ue) deriving from Greek λογος, although the -ue can be dropped in any word where there is a short o preceding the g: demagog(ue), pedagog(ue), monolog(ue), homolog(ue), etc. All the -gue forms are also relatively common in the United States, especially dialogue, which is the preferred variant in Merriam-Webster's dictionaries. Other words ending in -gue in Commonwealth usage generally retain -gue in America; for example, vogue, rogue, plague, intrigue, fugue, colleague, tongue, harangue.

Simplification of ae (æ) and oe (œ)

Many words are written with ae or oe in British English, but a single e in American English. The sound in question is [i] or [ɛ] (or unstressed [ə]). Examples (with non-American letter in bold): anaemia, anaesthesia, caesium, diarrhoea, gynaecology, haemophilia, leukaemia, oesophagus, oestrogen, orthopaedic, paediatric. Words where British usage varies include encyclopaedia, foetus, homoeopathy, mediaeval. Words where American usage varies include aesthetic and oenology. Archaeology retains the a in both versions (although archeology is also accepted in American English, it is uncommon), although the ligature is usually dropped. This difference is also half of the distinction between British manoeuvre and American maneuver.

The Ancient Greek diphthongs <αι> and <οι> were transliterated into Latin as <ae> and <oe>. The ligatures æ and œ were introduced when the sounds became monophthongs, and later applied to words not of Greek origin, in both Latin (for example, fœtus) and French (for example, œuvre). In English, which has imported words from all three languages, it is now usual to replace Æ/æ with Ae/ae and Œ/œ with Oe/oe. In many cases, the digraph has been reduced to a single e in all varieties of English: for example, oeconomics, praemium, and tragoedy. In others, especially names, it is retained in all varieties: for example, Phoenix, Caesar, Oedipus. There is no reduction of Latin -ae plurals (e.g. larvae); nor where the digraph <ae>/<oe> does not result from the Greek-style ligature: for example, maelstrom, toe. British aeroplane is an instance (compare other aero- words such as aerosol). American airplane is not a respelling but a recoining, modelled on airship and aircraft. Airplane dates from 1907, at which time aero- was trisyllabic, often written aëro-.

Compounds and hyphens

Commonwealth English often favours hyphenated compounds, such as counter-attack, whereas American English discourages the use of hyphens in compounds where there is no compelling reason, so counterattack is much more common. Many dictionaries do not point out such differences.

Common suffixes

Commonwealth English generally doubles final -l when adding suffixes that begin with a vowel if -l is preceded by a single vowel, whereas American English doubles it only on stressed syllables. (Thus American English treats -l the same as other final consonants, whereas Commonwealth English treats it irregularly.) Commonwealth counsellor, equalling, modelling, quarrelled, signalling, travelled; American usually counselor (but chancellor), equaling, modeling, quarreled, signaling, traveled.

• But compelled, excelling, propelled, rebelling in both (notice the stress difference); revealing, fooling (double vowel before the l); hurling (consonant before the l).
• But Commonwealth fuelling, woollen; American fueling, woolen.
• Commonwealth writers also use a single l before suffixes beginning with a consonant where Americans use a double: Commonwealth enrolment, fulfilment (but fulfilled), instalment, skilful; American enrollment, fulfillment, installment, skillful. The infinitives of these verbs are also different: in the Commonwealth, they are to enrol, fulfil and instal (although install is far more common), whereas in the USA, they are to enroll, fulfill and install.
• Commonwealth English often keeps silent e when adding suffixes where American English doesn't. British usually ageing, routeing; American aging, routing. Both systems retain the silent e when necessary to preserve a soft c or g: traceable, judgement (although judgment is also standard in both Commonwealth and American English), and in the word dyeing to distinguish it from dying.

Miscellaneous spelling differences

Proper names formed as acronyms are often rendered in title case by Commonwealth writers, but usually as upper case by Americans: for example, Nasa / NASA or Unicef / UNICEF. This never applies to initialisms, such as USA or HTML.

There is a tendency for new technical meanings of old words to be coined in America and then re-exported to the Commonwealth with the American spelling retained, thus creating a written distinction between the old and new meanings which does not exist in American English. See disk, program and possibly artifact. But compare also meter, for which an older English written distinction between etymologically related forms with different meanings once existed, but was obviated in the regularization of American spellings.

Commonwealth	American	Remarks
annexe	annex	To annex is the verb in both Commonwealth and American usage; however, when speaking of an annex(e) (the noun referring to an extension of a main building, not military conquest, which would be annexation), it is usually spelt with an -e at the end in the Commonwealth, but in the U.S. it is not.
any more	anymore*	In sense "any longer", the single-word form is usual in America but unusual and disputed in Britain. Other senses always have the two-word form; thus Americans distinguish "I couldn't love you anymore [so I left you]" from "I couldn't love you any more [than I already do]".
artefact	artifact	Commonwealth usage is mixed, but some speakers claim to write artefact to mean “a product of artisanry” but artifact when the meaning is “a flaw in experimental results caused by the experiment itself”. This may be an example of the American spelling becoming universal for the technical sense of a nontechnical word: compare disk, program. Some American authorities regard "artifact" as non-standard.
axe	ax	Both noun and verb; both forms common in the U.S.
cheque	check	For a bank cheque; some U.S. financial institutions, notably American Express, also prefer "cheque." However, the verbs in both the sense "verify" and the sense "stop", and the nouns corresponding to these, are check everywhere.
cypher	cipher	Both forms are used in both the UK and the U.S. (both spellings are quite old).
disc	disk	In the U.S., disc is used for optical discs (e.g. a CD is compact disc), while disk is used for everything else (e.g. floppy disk and hard disk). In computing (among other fields), both spellings are used in both American and Commonwealth English — the two spellings are generally used mutually exclusively to refer to discs of different types.
draught	draft	Commonwealth English uses draught for a plan or sketch, for drinks stored in barrels ('draught bitter'), for animals used for pulling heavy loads ("a draught horse"), for a current of air, and for a ship's minimum depth of water to float; it uses draft for a preliminary version of a document and for the verb meaning to write it, and for an order of payment. American English uses draft in all these cases, as well as when speaking of what Commonwealth speakers refer to as military conscription. Commonwealth English also uses draught for the game of draughts (Americans call it checkers).
er, erm	uh, um*	In speech, an interjection denoting hesitation or uncertainty. Both <er> and <u> are pronunciation spellings for a schwa or similar central vowel sound.
for ever	forever*	In Commonwealth English, for ever means for eternity (or a very long time), as in "I have been waiting for you for ever." Forever means continually, always, as in "They are forever arguing."
furore	furor	Furore can be pronounced with a voiced or silent e.
glycerine	glycerin	Glycerine is also commonly used in the U.S.
gaol	jail*	British English uses jail and jailer more often than gaol and gaoler (except to describe a mediaeval building and guard).
grey	gray	American English uses both grey and gray, but gray is far more common in American English. American authors tend to assign wistful, positive connotations to grey, as in "a grey fog hung over the skyline", whereas gray often carries connotations of drabness, "a gray, gloomy day."
hiccough	hiccup*	Hiccup is also used in Britain. Irrespective of the spelling the pronunciation is always "hiccup".
jewellery	jewelry
kerb	curb	Curb is used in Britain/Ireland for the verb "to restrain" or "to control", but the edge of a roadway (the edge of a pavement [American English sidewalk]) is kerb.
mould	mold	In all senses of the word.
moult	molt
neurone	neuron*	Neuron is also used in Britain.
plough	plow
programme	program*	Program was often used in British English during the late 20th century when referring to a computer program, following American spelling. However, this appears to be in decline, as programme is increasingly used by newspapers and magazines. For other meanings, programme is used.
rôle	role
sceptic(ism)	skeptic(ism)
storey	story*	When referring to levels of buildings; a tale is story everywhere. Note also the differing plural, storeys vs stories respectively.
sulphur	sulfur*	The American spelling is the international standard in the sciences, although many British scientists use the British spelling.
tyre	tire	Tyre in Commonwealth English (except Canadian) refers to the noun, a rubber ring on a wheel of a vehicle, whereas tire, a verb, in the sense of losing energy, is spelt so everywhere.
vice	vise	Americans use vise for the tool and vice for the sin; Commonwealth usage has vice for both.

* American spellings which predominate in Canada and Australia. New Zealand spelling of these words is variable, showing some preference for British spellings to distinguish itself from both the United States and Australia.

References

• Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.