British and American Spelling


British and American spelling are sometimes different. This is because British English often maintains the spelling of words from other languages, but American English often prefers to adapt the spelling to American pronunciation.

Here are the main ways in which British and American spelling are different.

Words ending in –re

British English words that end in -re often end in -er in American English:

British      
US
centre          
center
fiber
liter
theater or theatre

Words ending in -our
British English words ending in -our usually end in -or in American English:

British         
US
color
flavor
humor
labor
neighbor

Words ending in -ize or -ise
Verbs in British English that can be spelled with either -ize or -ise at the end are always spelled with -ize at the end in American English:

British                           

US
apologize or apologise
apologize
organize or organise
organize
recognize or recognise
recognize

Words ending in -yse
Verbs in British English that end in -yse are always spelled -yze in American English:

British           

US
analyze
breathalyze
paralyze

Words ending in a vowel plus l
In British spelling, verbs ending in a vowel plus l double the l when adding endings that begin with a vowel. In American English, the l is not doubled:

British            
US
travel
travelled
traveled
travelling
traveling
traveller
traveler
fuel                 
fuel
fuelled
fueled
fuelling
fueling

Words spelled with double vowels
British English words that are spelled with the double vowels ae or oe are just spelled with an e in American English:

British            
US
leukemia
maneuver
estrogen
pediatric

Note that in American English some words such as archaeology, keep the ae spelling as standard, although the spelling with just the e (i.e. archeology) is usually acceptable as well.

Nouns ending with –ence
Some nouns that end with -ence in British English are spelled -ense in American English:

British            
US
defense
license
offense
pretense

Nouns ending with –ogue
Some nouns that end with -ogue in British English end with either -og or -ogue in American English:

British            
US
analog or analogue
catalog or catalogue
dialog or dialogue

The changes here can vary. The spelling analogue is acceptable but not very common in American English; catalog has become the US norm, but catalogue is not rare; dialogue is still preferred over dialog.

As well as spelling differences, many words are different in British and American English. For more information, see the British versus American dictionary.

Adapted from www.oxforddictionaries.com

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