“Characterize” or “Characterise”

Language

Characterize and characterise are both English terms.

Usage

Characterize is predominantly used in 🇺🇸 American (US) English (en-US) while characterise is predominantly used in 🇬🇧 British English (used in UK/AU/NZ) (en-GB).

In terms of actual appearance and usage, here's a breakdown by country, with usage level out of 100 (if available) 👇:

Term	US	UK	India	Philippines	Canada	Australia	Liberia	Ireland	New Zealand	Jamaica	Trinidad & Tobago	Guyana
characterize	100	34	73	99	95	38	0	46	42	100	0	0
characterise	0	66	27	1	5	62	0	54	58	0	0	0

• In the United States, there is a preference for "characterize" over "characterise" (100 to 0).
• In the United Kingdom, there is a 66 to 34 preference for "characterise" over "characterize".
• In India, there is a preference for "characterize" over "characterise" (73 to 27).
• In the Philippines, there is a preference for "characterize" over "characterise" (99 to 1).
• In Canada, there is a preference for "characterize" over "characterise" (95 to 5).
• In Australia, there is a 62 to 38 preference for "characterise" over "characterize".
• In Liberia, there is not enough data to determine a preference between "characterize" and "characterise".
• In Ireland, there is a 54 to 46 preference for "characterise" over "characterize".
• In New Zealand, there is a 58 to 42 preference for "characterise" over "characterize".
• In Jamaica, there is a preference for "characterize" over "characterise" (100 to 0).
• In Trinidad & Tobago, there is not enough data to determine a preference between "characterize" and "characterise".
• In Guyana, there is not enough data to determine a preference between "characterize" and "characterise".

Examples

Below, we provide some examples of when to use characterize or characterise with sample sentences.

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