“Authorize” or “Authorise”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 6 prefer “authorize” and 4 prefer “authorise”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	authorize	authorise	Preference
United States	99	1	“authorize”
United Kingdom	27	73	“authorise”
India	62	38	“authorize”
Philippines	96	4	“authorize”
Canada	94	6	“authorize”
Australia	37	63	“authorise”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	42	58	“authorise”
New Zealand	43	57	“authorise”
Jamaica	100	0	“authorize”
Trinidad & Tobago	100	0	“authorize”
Guyana	0	0	Not enough data

Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“authorize”

…Inouye's special legislation, , to authorize the Navy to sell land…
…of Congress introduced bills to authorize coins to honor the United…
…the legal provision that would authorize the contract for feeding private…
To authorize the Council to fix the…
…for physical gratification does not authorize immorality by anyone."
…"took it on himself to authorize an investigation of Maciel".
…the board members could then authorize a share repurchase plan.
…Public Health Service Act to authorize funding for public and private…
…3314: A bill to specifically authorize certain funds for an intelligence…
…Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize surveillance without a showing of…

“authorise”

…2005, the Registrar agreed to authorise 12 celebrants from the Humanist…
…Gherman Pântea, were forced to authorise resistance; however, as the main…
…Act (ICT Act 1973), to authorise the investigation and prosecution of…
…so that they do not authorise a law with respect to…
Parties may authorise a representative (other than a…
…requires a party secretary to authorise party advertising in writing), they…
…General Synod passed legislation to authorise the ordination of women to…
…epidemic, and including failing to authorise and implement an overall national…
…arrangements, [the British Government would] authorise the Kabaka to return to…
An account holder can authorise a company to collect direct…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

Too much to remember?

Looking for a tool that handles this for you wherever you write?

Install Sapling Try the grammar checker