“Balked” or “Baulked”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 6 prefer “balked” and 0 prefer “baulked”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	balked	baulked	Preference
United States	95	5	“balked”
United Kingdom	58	42	“balked”
India	93	7	“balked”
Philippines	100	0	“balked”
Canada	93	7	“balked”
Australia	53	47	“balked”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	0	0	Not enough data
New Zealand	0	0	Not enough data
Jamaica	0	0	Not enough data
Trinidad & Tobago	0	0	Not enough data
Guyana	0	0	Not enough data

Usage

Examples in context

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

“balked”

…help the country, but Cameroon balked at their condition that the…
…citizenship to Bophuthatswana residents but balked at the notion of removing…
…for the riding element, which balked three times at an obstacle,…
Many delegates balked, especially at the assumption that…
…the right to vote, but balked at the restrictions placed upon…
…the Twentieth Century Fox studios, balked at the portrayal of Klaatu's…
In some cases, insurance companies balked at meeting the cost of…
However, the other premiers balked, which led to speculation they…
…indeed in most cases even balked - the instinct to scrutinise…
However, he balked at reporting to Green Bay…

“baulked”

…principle, the three confrontation states baulked at allowing Egyptian encroachment on…
…one object ball (unless double baulked)
…in 1526, and the Venetians baulked at sending any help.
…broke well but was badly baulked by Murex of Munster ending…
…Chair because his horse was baulked while Andrew McNamara confessed that…
…billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, after McLaren baulked at increasing his salary in…
…a shorter line, but Devers baulked at this, and there was…
Mainstream unionism had baulked at the excesses of the…
…"umpire", claimed that the players "baulked at the expense of new…
…Southern Spain but the club baulked at the transfer fee Tottenham

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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