American and British English Spelling Differences
American and British English Spelling Differences
American and British English Spelling Differences
spelling differences
American and British English spelling differences are one
aspect of American and British English differences.
Contents
• 1 Historical origins
• 2 Spelling and pronunciation
• 3 Latin-derived spellings
o 3.1 -our, -or
o 3.2 -re, -er
o 3.3 -ce, -se
o 3.4 -xion, -ction
• 4 Greek spellings
o 4.1 -ise, -ize
4.1.1 -yse, -yze
o 4.2 -ogue, -og
o 4.3 Simplification of ae (æ) and oe (œ)
• 5 Compounds and hyphens
• 6 Doubled consonants
o 6.1 Doubled in British English
o 6.2 Doubled in American English
• 7 Dropped e
• 8 Different spellings, different connotations
• 9 Acronyms and abbreviations
• 10 Miscellaneous spelling differences
Historical origins
In the early 18th century, English spelling was not
standardized. Differences became noticeable after the
publishing of influential dictionaries. Current British English
spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's
Dictionary of the English Language (1755), whereas many
American English spellings follow Noah Webster's An American
Dictionary of the English Language of 1828.
UK US Notes
aeroplan airplane Aeroplane, originally a French loanword, is
e the older spelling. According to the OED,
[a]irplane became the standard U.S. term
(replacing aeroplane) after it was adopted by
the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics in 1916. Although A. Lloyd Jones
recommended its adoption by the BBC in
1928, it has until recently been no more than
an occasional form in British English." In the
British National Corpus, aeroplane
outnumbers airplane by more than 7:1. The
case is similar for UK aerodrome and
US airdrome, although both of these forms
are now obsolescent. The
prefixes aero- and air- both mean air, the first
coming from the Greek wordαέρας. Thus, for
example, the first appears in aeronautics,
aerostatics and aerodynamics, and so on,
where the second suffix is a Greek word,
while the second occurs (invariably)
in aircraft, airport, airliner, airmail, etc. where
the second suffix is an English word. In
Canada, Airplane is used more commonly
than aeroplane, although aeroplane is not
unknown, especially in parts of French
Canada (the current French term is,
however, avion — aéroplanedesignating in
French the plane ancestor). Both Canada and
Australia use aerodrome as a technical term.
aluminiu aluminum The spelling aluminium is the international
m standard in the sciences (IUPAC). The
American spelling is nonetheless used by
many American scientists. Humphry Davy,
the element's discoverer, first proposed the
namealumium, and then later aluminum. The
name aluminium was finally adopted to
conform with the -ium ending of metallic
elements. Canada as US, Australia as UK.
arse ass In vulgar senses "buttocks"
("anus"/"wretch"); unrelated sense
"donkey"/"idiot" is ass in both. Both forms
are found in Canada and Australia ("ass" to a
lesser extent in the latter; "arse" may be
used in North America as a "non-vulgar
replacement").
barmy balmy In sense "slightly insane", "crazy",
"foolish", which has limited meaning in
American English. Both forms originated in
19th century England from other
senses: barmy meant "frothing [as of
beer]"; balmy means "warm and soft [as of
weather]". British barmy is generally
misheard in North America as balmy.
behove behoove
bogeym boogeyman The spoken form is pronounced IPA: /ˈboʊgiː
an ˌmæn/ ("BOH-ghi-man") in the UK, so that the
US form,boogeyman, is reminiscent of the
1970s disco dancing 'boogie' to the UK ear.
carburet carburetor British pronunciation IPA: /ˌkɑːbəˈɹɛtə(ɹ)/;
tor US IPA: /ˈkɑɹbəˌɹeɪtɚ/. Canada spelling and
pronunciation as US.
charivari shivaree,char In the US, where both terms are mainly
ivari regional, charivari is usually pronounced
as shivaree, which is also found in Canada
and Cornwall, and is a corruption of the
French word.
coupé coupe For a two-door car; the horse-drawn carriage
is coupé in both; unrelated "cup"/"bowl" is
always coupe. In the US, the E is accented
when used as a foreign word.
eyrie aerie Rhyme with weary and hairy respectively.
Both spellings and pronunciations occur in
the US.
fillet fillet, filet Meat or fish. Pronounced the French way
(approximately) in the US.
furore furor Furore is a late 18th-century Italian loan that
replaced the Latinate form in the UK in the
following century, and is usually pronounced
with a voiced e. Canada as US, Australia has
both.
grotty grody Clippings of grotesque; both are slang terms
from the 1960s.
haulier hauler Haulage contractor; haulier is the older
spelling.
moustac mustache In the US, according to the Merriam-Webster
he Collegiate Dictionary and the American
Heritage Dictionary, the British spelling is an
also-ran, yet the pronunciation with second-
syllable stress is a common variant.
mum(my mom(my) Mother. Mom is sporadically regionally found
) in the UK (West Midlands English); some
British dialects havemam, and this is often
used in Northern English, Irish and Welsh
English. In the US region of New England,
especially in the case of the Boston accent,
the British pronunciation of mum is often
retained, while it is still spelledmom. Canada
has mom and mum; in Australia, mum is
used.
naivety naiveté,naïve The American forms are from French,
té ending [-'eɪ]; the British form is nativised,
ending [-i].
pernicke persnickety Persnickety is a late 19th-century North
ty American alteration of the Scottish
word pernickety.
quin quint Abbreviations of quintuplet.
scallywa scalawag In the US (where the word originated,
g as scalawag), scallywag is not unknown.
snigger snicker According to major dictionaries, both forms
can occur in both dialects,
although snigger can cause offense in the US
due to the similarity to nigger.
specialit specialty In British English the standard usage
y is speciality, but specialty occurs in the field
of medicine, and also as a legal term for
a contract under seal. In
Canada, specialty prevails; in Australia both
are current.
titbit tidbit
Latin-derived spellings
-our, -or
-re, -er
In British usage, some words of French, Latin, or Greek origin
end with a consonant followed by -re, with the -re unstressed
and pronounced /ə(ɹ)/. Most of these words have the ending -er
in the US. The difference is most common for words ending
-bre or -tre: British spellings theatre, goitre, litre,lustre, mitre,
nitre, reconnoitre, saltpetre, spectre, centre, titre; calibre, fibre,
sabre, and sombre all have -er in American spelling. The
ending -cre, as inacre, lucre, massacre, mediocre, is preserved
in American English, to indicate the c is pronounced /k/ rather
than /s/. After other consonants, there are not many -re
endings even in British English: louvre, manoeuvre after -v-;
meagre, ogre after -g-; euchre, ochre, sepulchre after -ch-. In
the US, ogre andeuchre are standard; manoeuvre and
sepulchre are usually maneuver and sepulcher; and the other
-re forms listed are variants of the equivalent -er form.
The difference relates only 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
British 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.
-ce, -se
Nouns ending in -ce with -se verb forms: American English and
British English both retain the noun/verb distinction in advice /
advise and device /devise, but American English has
abandoned the distinction
with licence / license and practice / practise (where the two
words in each pair arehomophones) that British spelling
retains. American English uses practice and license for both
meanings.
-xion, -ction
Greek spellings
-ise, -ize
-yse, -yze
-ogue, -og
Doubled consonants
Doubled in British English
Miscellaneous:
Dropped e
British English sometimes keeps silent e when adding suffixes
where American English does not.
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