American and British English spelling differences

Latin-derived spellings

-our, -or

Most words ending in an unstressed -our in British English (e.g., colour, flavour, honour, neighbour, rumour, labour, humour) end in -or in American English (e.g., color, flavor, honor, neighbor, rumor, labor, humor). Wherever the vowel is unreduced in pronunciation, this does not occur: contour, velour, paramour, troubadour, are spelt thus the same everywhere. 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.^[30] After the Norman Conquest, the ending became -our in Anglo-French in an attempt to represent the Old French pronunciation of words ending in -or,^[31] though color has been used occasionally in English since the 15th century.^[32] The -our ending was not only retained in English borrowings from Anglo-French, but also applied to earlier French borrowings.^[30] After the Renaissance, some such borrowings from Latin were taken up with their original -or ending; 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 meaning "shelter", though 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 (e.g. color^[32]) 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.^[33]

Webster's 1828 dictionary featured only -or and is generally given much of the credit for the adoption of this form in the United States. By contrast, Dr Johnson's 1755 dictionary used the -our spelling for all words still so spelled in Britain, as well as for emperour, errour, governour, horrour, tenour, terrour, and tremour, where the u has since been dropped. Johnson, unlike Webster, was not an advocate of spelling reform, but selected the version best-derived, as he saw it, from among the variations in his sources: he favoured French over Latin spellings because, as he put it, "the French generally supplied us".^[34] 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."^[35] 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 numbered in thousands.^[36] One notable exception is honor: honor and honour were equally frequent down to the 17th century,^[37] Honor still is, in the UK, the normal spelling as 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, behaviourism); before Latin suffixes that are not freely attachable to English words, the u may be dropped (honorific, honorist, vigorous, humorous, laborious, invigorate), may be either dropped or retained (colo(u)ration, colo(u)rise), or may be retained (colourist).^[30] In American usage, derivatives and inflected forms are built by simply adding the suffix in all environments (favorite, savory, etc.) since the u is absent to begin with.

Exceptions. American usage in most cases retains the u in the word glamour, which comes from Scots, not Latin or French. "Glamor" is occasionally used in imitation of the spelling reform of other -our words to -or. The adjective "glamorous" omits the first "u". Saviour is a somewhat common variant of savior in the United States. The British spelling is very common for "honour" (and "favour") in the stilted language of wedding invitations in the United States.^[38] The name of the Space Shuttle Endeavour has a u in it since this spacecraft was named after Captain James Cook's ship, HMS Endeavour.

The name of the herb savory is thus spelled everywhere, although the related adjective savo(u)ry, like savour, has a u in the UK. Honor (the name) and arbor (the tool) have -or in Britain, as mentioned above. As a general noun, rigour (/ˈrɪɡər/) has a u in the UK; the medical term rigor (often pronounced /ˈraɪɡɔr/) does not. Words with the ending -irior, -erior or similar are spelled thus everywhere and have never had a "u", for example inferior or exterior.

Commonwealth usage. Commonwealth countries normally follow British usage. In Canada -or endings are not uncommon, particularly in Western Canada.^[33] In Australia, -or endings enjoyed some use in the 19th century, and now are sporadically found in some regions^[33], usually in local and regional newspapers, though the most notable countrywide use of -or is for the Australian Labor Party. Aside from that, -our is almost universal. New Zealand English, while sharing some words and syntax with Australian English, follows British usage.

-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 /ər/. Most of these words have the ending -er in the United States.^[39][40] The difference is most common for words ending -bre or -tre: British spellings centre, goitre, kilometre, litre, lustre, mitre, nitre, reconnoitre, saltpetre, spectre, theatre, titre, calibre, fibre, sabre, and sombre all have -er in American spelling.

There are many exceptions to the -re spelling in British usage. Many words spelled with -re in Modern French are spelled with -er in both British and American usage; among these are chapter, December, diameter, disaster, enter, filter, letter, member, minister, monster, October, November, number, oyster, parameter, powder, proper, September, sober, and tender.

The ending -cre, as in acre^[41], lucre, massacre, mediocre, is preserved in American English, to indicate the c is pronounced /k/ rather than /s/^{[citation needed]}.

After other consonants, there are not many -re endings even in British English: louvre^[41] and manoeuvre after -v; meagre (but not eager) and ogre after -g; and euchre, ochre, and sepulchre after -ch. In the United States, ogre and euchre are standard; manoeuvre and sepulchre are usually spelled as maneuver and sepulcher; and the other -re forms listed are less used variants of the equivalent -er form.^{[citation needed]}

The e preceding the r is retained in American-derived forms of nouns and verbs, for example, fibers, reconnoitered, centering, which are, naturally, fibres, reconnoitred and centring respectively in British usage. Centring is a particularly interesting example, since it is still pronounced as three syllables in British English (/ˈsɛntərɪŋ/), yet there is no vowel letter in the spelling corresponding to the second syllable. It is dropped for other inflections, for example, central, fibrous, spectral. However such dropping cannot be regarded as proof of an -re British spelling: for example, entry derives from enter, which has not been spelled entre for centuries.^[42]

The difference relates only to root words; -er rather than -re is universal as a suffix for agentive (reader, winner, user) and comparative (louder, nicer) forms. One consequence is the British distinction of meter for a measuring instrument from metre for the unit of length. However, while poetic metre is often -re, pentameter, hexameter, etc. are almost always -er.^[43]

Exceptions. Many other words have -er in British English. These include Germanic words like anger, mother, timber, water and Romance words like danger, quarter, river.

Theater is the prevailing American spelling used to refer to both the dramatic arts and buildings where stage performances and screenings of movies take place (i.e., "movie theaters"); for example, a national newspaper such as The New York Times uses theater throughout its "Theater", "Movies", and "Arts & Leisure" sections. In contrast, the spelling theatre appears in the names of many New York City theaters on Broadway^[44] (cf. Broadway theatre) and elsewhere in the United States. In 2003 the proposal of the American National Theatre, eventually to be founded and inaugurated in the fall of 2007, was referred to by the New York Times as the "American National Theater"; but the organization actually uses "re" in the spelling of its name.^[45][46] The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., or The Kennedy Center, features the more common American spelling theater in its references to The Eisenhower Theater, part of The Kennedy Center.^[47] Some cinemas outside New York use the "theatre" spelling.^[48]

In many instances, places in the United States use Centre in their names. Examples include the Stonebriar Centre mall in Frisco, Texas, the cities of Rockville Centre, New York and Centreville, Illinois, and Centre College in Kentucky. Sometimes these places were named before spelling changes took effect, but more often the spelling merely serves as an affectation. There are also a few cases of the use of Center in the United Kingdom (e.g., the Valley Centertainment in Sheffield, although this is in fact a portmanteau of "centre" and "entertainment").

For British accoutre(ment), the American practice varies: the Merriam-Webster Dictionary prefers the -re spelling^[49], but the American Heritage Dictionary the -er spelling.^[50]

More recent French loanwords retain an -re spelling in American English. These are not exceptions when a French-style pronunciation is used (/rə/ rather than /ər/), as with double-entendre, genre, or oeuvre. However, the unstressed /ər/ pronunciation of an -er ending is used more or less frequently with some words, including cadre, macabre, maître d', Notre Dame, piastre, and timbre.

Commonwealth usage.^[51] The -re endings are mostly standard throughout the Commonwealth. The -er spellings are recognised as minor variants in Canada, due in part to American influences. Proper names, particularly names incorporating the word centre/center, are an occasional source of exceptions, such as, for example, Toronto's controversially-named Centerpoint Mall. However, -re generally prevails in Canada.

-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 are homophones) that British spelling retains. American English uses practice and license for both meanings.

American English has kept the Anglo-French spelling for defense and offense, which are usually defence and offence in British English; similarly there are the American pretense and British pretence; but derivatives such as defensive, offensive, and pretension are always thus spelled in both systems.

Australian^[52] and Canadian usage generally follows British.

-xion, -ction

The spelling connexion is now rare in everyday British usage, its employment declining as knowledge of Latin declines,^[53] and it is not used at all in America: the more common connection has become the standard internationally. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the older spelling is more etymologically conservative, since the word actually derives from Latin forms in -xio-. The American usage derives from Webster who discarded the -xion in favor of -ction by analogy with such verbs as connect.^[54]

Complexion (which comes from the stem complex) is standard and complection usually is not.^[55] However, the adjective complected (as in "dark-complected"), although sometimes objected to, can be used as an alternative to complexioned in the US,^[56] but is quite unknown in this sense in the UK, although there is an extremely rare usage to mean complicated (OED).