American and British English spelling differences

In the early 18th century, spelling in English was not regular; current British spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while some of the now characteristic American spellings, such as center, color, and traveler, were introduced, although often not created, by Noah Webster (An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828), who was a strong proponent of spelling reform for a variety of reasons, both philological and nationalistic. (Many spelling changes proposed in the U.S. by Webster himself and, in the early 20th century, by the Simplified Spelling Board never caught on.) Among the advocates of spelling reform in England, the influences of those who preferred the Norman (or frenchified) spellings of certain words proved decisive. Subsequent spelling adjustments in Britain had little effect on present-day U.S. spelling, and vice versa. While in the 19th century American English deviated from mainstream British spelling in many cases, on the other hand it has often retained older forms (skeptic, curb, tire, defense, program, -ize, etc.)

The spelling systems of Commonwealth countries other than the UK and Ireland closely resemble the British system (with possibly the exception of Canada, where many "American" spellings are also used, to various extents, often alongside of their "British" counterparts.) Hence, the term Commonwealth English will herein be used to refer to the orthography items shared by the British Isles and all the English-speaking countries of the Commonwealth, as opposed to American orthography. Differences within Commonwealth usage are duly noted.

Spelling and pronunciation

In a few miscellaneous cases, essentially the same word has a different spelling which reflects a different pronunciation. Commonwealth as Britain except where noted.

Britain	U.S.	Remarks
aluminium	aluminum	Aluminium is the international standard in the sciences (IUPAC); the American spelling is nonetheless used by many American scientists. Canada as U.S.
arse	ass	In vulgar senses "buttocks" ("anus"/"wretch"); unrelated sense "donkey" is ass in both. Both forms are found in Canada and the term is more or less interchangeable in the UK, although the pronunciation differs between spellings.
behove	behoove	Canada as U.S.
carburettor	carburetor	The British pronunciation stresses the third syllable; the American stresses the first. Canada as U.S.
charivari	shivaree, charivari	In the U.S., where both terms are mainly regional, charivari is however pronounced usually as shivaree, which is also found in Canada and Cornwall, and is a corruption of the French word.
coupé	coupe	for a 2-door car; the horse-drawn carriage is coupé in both; unrelated "cup"/"bowl" is always coupe.
fillet	fillet, filet	Meat or fish. Pronounced as in French in the U.S. if spelled filet. Canada as U.S.
furore	furor	Furore is a late 18th-century Italian loan that replaced the latinate form in Britain in the following century, and is usually pronounced with a voiced e. Canada as U.S. Australia has both.
haulier	hauler	Haulage contractor. Canada as U.S.
maths	math	Abbreviations of mathematics. Canada as U.S. and increased use of math in Australia due to U.S. influences.
moustache	mustache	The Commonwealth spelling is sometimes found in America, and so is the second-syllable stress pronunciation, regardless of the spelling.
mum(my)	mom(my)	Mother. Mom is regionally found in Britain (West Midlands English). Some British dialects have mam. Canada has both.
pernickety	persnickety	Persnickety is a late 19th-century North American alteration of the Scottish word pernickety.
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. Canada as U.S. British English makes a phonemic distinction; General American English does not, though Northeastern and Southern dialects do.
scallywag	scalawag	In the U.S. (where the word originated, as scalawag) scallywag is not unknown. Canada as U.S.
snigger, snicker	snicker	Snigger can occur in the U.S., although it can cause offence due to the similarity to nigger. In Canada snigger can have malicious connotations; in Australia snigger prevails.
speciality	specialty	In British English, specialty occurs mainly in the field of Medicine. It is also a legal term for a contract under seal. Canada as U.S.
titbit	tidbit	Canada as U.S.

Latin-derived spellings

-our / -or

Most words ending in unstressed -our in Britain (e.g. colour, flavour, honour) end in -or in the U.S. (e.g. color, flavor, honor). Most words of this category derive from Latin non-agent nouns having nominative -or; the first such borrowings into English were from early Old French and the ending was -or or -ur. After the Norman Conquest, the termination became -our in Anglo-French in an attempt to represent the Old French pronunciation of words ending in -or. The -our ending was not only retained in English borrowings from Anglo-French, but also applied to earlier French borrowings. After the Renaissance, some such borrowings from Latin were taken up with their original -or termination; many words once ending in -our (for example, chancellour and governour) now end in -or everywhere. Many words of the -our/-or group do not have a Latin counterpart; for example, armo(u)r, behavio(u)r, harbo(u)r, neighbo(u)r; also arbo(u)r in sense "bower"; senses "tree" and "tool" are always arbor, a false cognate of the other word. Some 16th and early 17th century British scholars indeed insisted that -or be used for words of Latin origin and -our for French loans; but in many cases the etymology was not completely clear, and therefore some scholars advocated -or only and others -our only.

As early as 1755 Dr Johnson settled on -our, while Webster's 1828 dictionary featured only -or and is generally given much of the credit for the adoption of this form in the U.S. By contrast, Johnson, unlike Webster, was not a supporter of spelling reform and for the most part simply recorded what he found. For example, documents from the Old Bailey, a court in London, support the view of the OED that by the 17th century "colour" was the settled spelling. Those English speakers who began to move across the Atlantic would have taken these habits with them and H L Mencken makes the point that, "honor appears in the Declaration of Independence, but it seems to have got there rather by accident than by design. In Jefferson’s original draft it is spelled honour. " [http://www.bartleby.com/185/32.html Examples such as color, flavor, behavior, harbor, or neighbor scarcely appear in the Old Bailey's court records from the 17th and 18th century, whereas examples of their -our counterparts are generally numbered in hundreds. One notable exception is honor: honor and honour were equally frequent down to the 17th century, and Honor still is in Britain the normal spelling for a person's name.

Derivatives and inflected forms. In derivatives and inflected forms of the -our/or words, in British usage the u is kept before English suffixes that are freely attachable to English words (neighbourhood, humourless, savoury) and suffixes of Greek or Latin origin that have been naturalised (favourite, honourable, colourise/colourize, behaviourism); before Latin suffixes that are not freely attachable to English words, the u can be dropped (honorific, honorist, vigorous, humorous, laborious, invigorate), can be either dropped or retained (coloration, colouration), or can be retained (colourist). In American usage, derivatives and inflected forms are built by simply adding the suffix in all environments (favorite, savory, etc.)

Exceptions. The word glamour comes from Scots, not Latin or French, and is usually spelled glamour (rarely glamor) in the U.S. and always glamour everywhere else; saviour is a common variant of savior in the U.S.; the name of the herb savory is thus spelled everywhere (although the probably related adjective savo(u)ry does have a u in Britain.)

Commonwealth usage. Commonwealth countries normally follow British usage. However, in Canada -or endings are not uncommon, particularly in the Prairie Provinces. In Australia, -or terminations enjoyed some use in the 19th century, and now are sporadically found in some regions.

-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 . 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 Commonwealth spelling retains. American English uses practice and license for both meanings. Canadian English generally follows Commonwealth usage for licence/license but American usage for practice. Also, Commonwealth defence, offence, pretence; American defense, offense, pretense: but compounds such as defensive, offensive, pretension, pretentious are always thus spelled. Canadian English follows Commonwealth usage for defence and offence, but both pretence and pretense are found.

-xion / -ction

The spellings connexion, inflexion, deflexion, reflexion are now somewhat rare in everyday usage, 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.

Connexion is still used in legal texts. 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.

In both forms, complexion (which comes from the stem complex) is standard and complection is not. However, the adjective complected (as in "dark complected"), although sometimes objected to, is more common than complexioned in the U.S. but rare in Britain. Likewise, crucifiction is usually regarded as an error; crucifixion (from crucifix) is the correct spelling. (Etymologically, the spelling crucifiction would in any case mean not “fixing to a cross” (Lat. figere) but “moulding into a cross” (Lat. fingere)).

Greek-derived spellings

-ize / -ise

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 , even though it is preferred by some authoritative British sources, including Fowler's Modern English Usage and the Oxford English Dictionary, which until recently often did not list the -ise form of individual words, even as an alternative. Indeed, it firmly deprecates this usage, writing, "The suffix, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek... (or) Latin -izare; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling in -iser should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic."

But the OED has been waging a losing battle. The -ise form is used by the British government 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, many people in Australia believe -ize to be an "Americanism," and -ise to be a Britishism and are even taught in school of the former being the case. 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

Some words of Greek origin, a few of which derive from Greek λογος, can end either in -ogue or in -og: analog(ue), catalog(ue), dialog(ue), demagog(ue), pedagog(ue), monolog(ue), homolog(ue), etc. In Britain (and generally in the Commonwealth), the -gue endings are the standard. In the U.S., catalog has a slight edge over catalogue (note the inflected forms, cataloged and cataloging vs. catalogued and cataloguing); analog is standard for the adjective, but both analogue and analog are acceptable for the noun; in all other cases the -gue endings prevail, except for such expressions as dialog box in computing, which are used in Britain as well. Finally, outside the U.S. analog has currency as a technical term (e.g. in electronics, as in "analog computer").

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 or (or unstressed ). 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 (though the British medical community deems this variant unacceptable for the purposes of journal articles and the like, since the Latin spelling is actually fetus), homoeopathy, mediaeval. In American usage, aesthetics and archaeology prevail over esthetics and archeology, while oenology is a minor variant of enology. 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 and . 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 / 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 oftenest doubles it only on stressed syllables. (Thus American spelling treats -l the same as other final consonants, whereas Commonwealth spelling 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.
Conversely, British writers use a single l before suffixes beginning with a consonant where Americans use a double: British enrolment, fulfilment (but fulfilled), instalment, skilful; American enrollment, fulfillment, installment, skillful. The infinitives of these verbs can also be different: British enrol, fulfil; U.S. enroll, fulfill; in Britain, instal is a less common variant of install.
British English often keeps silent e when adding suffixes where American English does not. British often ageing, routeing; American usually aging, routing. Both systems retain the silent e when necessary to preserve a soft c or g, as in traceable, and in the word dyeing, to distinguish it from dying. Finally, judgement and judgment are both standard everywhere, although the former prevails in Britain and the latter in the U.S.

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 certain 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.

Throughout the following table, Canadian and Australian spelling is the same as British except where noted. Where Australian spelling follows U.S. usage, New Zealand often prefers the British variant.

In some Commonwealth countries, draughts is also the name of the board game known as checkers in the U.S.

Britain	U.S.	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 (except Canada), but in the U.S. it is not.
any more	anymore	In sense "any longer", the single-word form is usual in North America and Australia but unusual and disputed in Britain. Other senses always have the two-word form; thus Americans distinguish "I couldn't love you anymore I left you" from "I couldn't love you any more 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; axe used also in the U.S.
camomile, chamomile	chamomile, camomile	In Britain, according to the OED, "the spelling cha- is chiefly in pharmacy, after Latin; that with ca- is literary and popular". In the U.S. chamomile dominates in all senses. In Canada chamomile seems to prevail.
cheque	check	For a bank cheque. Some U.S. financial institutions, notably American Express, also prefer cheque.
chequer	checker	As in chequerboard/checkerboard, chequered/checkered flag, etc. Canada as U.S.
cosy	cozy	In all senses (adjective, noun, verb). In Canada cozy prevails.
cypher, cipher	cipher	Both spellings are quite old.
disc, disk	disk, disc	Both spellings are etymologically sound (Greek diskos, Latin discus), although disk is earlier. In the U.S., disc is used for optical discs (e.g. a CD (Compact Disc), DVD (Digital Versatile 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 the U.S. and the Commonwealth — the two spellings are generally used mutually exclusively to refer to discs of different types.
draught	draft	The UK uses draught for a plan or sketch, for dispensing drinks (draught beer), 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, for an order of payment, and for military conscription (although this last meaning is not as common as in American English). The U.S. uses draft in all these cases (except in regard to drinks, where draught is sometimes found). Canada uses both systems; in Australia, draft is used for technical drawings, is accepted for the "current of air" meaning, and is preferred by professionals in the nautical sense. The pronunciation is always the same for all meanings within a dialect (RP , General American ). The spelling draught is older; draft appeared first in the late 16th century.
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. The U.S. variant is common in Canada and Australia; the British variant is also used in the U.S.
for ever	forever	In British usage, 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." Forever prevails in all senses in Canada and Australia.
glycerine	glycerin, glycerine	Scientists call it glycerol.
jail, gaol	jail	Jail prevails everywhere, although gaol is still an official spelling in Australia; in Britain, gaol and gaoler are used, apart from literary usage, chiefly to describe a mediaeval building and guard.
grey	gray	Grey became the established British spelling in the 20th century, pace Dr. Johnson and others, and is but a minor variant in American English. Some American writers 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."
jewellery	jewelry	According to Fowler, jewelry used to be the "rhetorical and poetic" spelling in Britain. Canada has both. Likewise, Commonwealth (including Canada) has jeweller and U.S. has jeweler for a jewel(le)ry retailer.
kerb	curb	For the noun designating the edge of a roadway (the edge of a (UK) pavement/(U.S.) sidewalk). Curb is the oldest spelling. Canada as U.S.
liquorice	licorice	Licorice, foregrounded by Canadian and Australian dictionaries, is rarely found in the UK; liquorice, which derived from licorice by folk etymology, is nonexistent in the U.S.
mould	mold	In all senses of the word. In Canada both have wide acceptance.
moult	molt
neurone, neuron	neuron	Neuron prevails in Canada and Australia; both are common in Britain.
plough	plow	Plough can be used in the U.S. to refer to the horse-drawn variety, whereas plow is used to refer to more modern ones. Plow is also used in Canada.
programme	program	The British spelling is a 19th-century frenchified version of program, which first appeared in Scotland in the 17th century. In British English, program is the traditional spelling for computer programs, but programme is now common in this sense and increasingly used by newspapers and magazines. For other meanings, programme is used. Program prevails in all senses in Canada and Australia; the Canadian Oxford makes no meaning-based distinction between the two, and many Canadian government documents use programme in the "software" sense.
sceptic (-al, -ism)	skeptic (-al, -ism)	The American spelling, akin to Greek, preferred by Fowler, and used by many Canadians, is the earliest form. Sceptic also pre-dates the settlement of the U.S. and follows the French sceptique and Latin scepticus. In the mid-18th century Dr Johnson's dictionary listed skeptic without comment or alternative but this form dropped out in England. Australians generally follow British usage.
spyder	spider	For a two-seat convertible car. Both forms can occur in the United States, though the British spelling is preferred in Europe, particularly the UK and Ireland.
storey	story	Level of a building. Note also the differing plural, storeys vs stories respectively.
sulphur	sulfur	The American spelling is the international standard in the sciences and prevails in Canada and Australia; many British scientists use the British spelling and it is still actively taught in British schools.
tyre	tire	Wheel rubber part. Canada as U.S. Tire is the older spelling, but both were used in the 15th and 16th centuries (for a metal tire); tire became the settled spelling in the 17th century but tyre was revived in Britain in the 19th century for pneumatic tyres, possibly because it was used in some patent documents, though many continued to use tire for the iron variety. The Times newspaper was still using tire as late as 1905.
vice	vise	The two-jaw tool. Americans (and Canadians) retain a medieval distinction between vise (the tool) and vice (the sin and the Latin prefix meaning "deputy"), both of which are vice in Britain (and Australia).
yoghurt, yogurt	yogurt	Yoghurt is a minor variant in the U.S., as yoghourt is in Britain. Although Oxford Dictionaries have always preferred yogurt, in current British usage yoghurt seems to be preferred. In Canada yogurt prevails, despite the Canadian Oxford Dictionary favouring yogourt. Australia as Britain. Whatever the spelling, the word has different pronunciations in Britain and the U.S. .

Notes

References

Oxford English Dictionary, 20 vols. (1989) Oxford University Press.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961; repr. 2002) Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Fowler, Henry; Winchester, Simon (introduction) (2003 reprint). A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Oxford Language Classics Series). Oxford Press. ISBN 0198605064.
Burchfield, R. W. (Editor); Fowler, H. W. (1996). The New Fowler's Modern English Usage. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198691262.
Nicholson, Margaret; (1957). "A Dictionary of American-English Usage Based on Fowler's Modern English Usage". Signet, by arrangement with Oxford University Press.

American and British English differences

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