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“Civilizing” or “Civilising”

Civilizing is predominantly used in American (US) English (en-US) while civilising is predominantly used in British English (used in UK/AU/NZ) (en-GB).

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Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 3 prefer “civilizing” and 4 prefer “civilising”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country civilizing civilising Preference
United States 97 3 “civilizing”
United Kingdom 40 60 “civilising”
India 17 83 “civilising”
Philippines 100 0 “civilizing”
Canada 100 0 “civilizing”
Australia 30 70 “civilising”
Liberia 0 0 Not enough data
Ireland 47 53 “civilising”
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.

“civilizing”

  • The Church proceeded with its civilizing mission of literacy and education,…
  • …syphilis could act as a "civilizing hero", by favoring intellectual traits…
  • …a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process, and Thomas Jefferson continued
  • …nations it had a special "civilizing mission" - not only in…
  • …the success of the Belgian civilizing mission begun under King Leopold
  • …Prohaska Carries the Habsburg Empire's Civilizing Mission to the Entirely Unreceptive…
  • …if it were not for civilizing forces and developing government.
  • …"God-King" or "Anointed One" and civilizing hero.
  • …and certain wealthy individuals as civilizing forces for outside groups.
  • 'Civilizing' the populations of Africa through…

“civilising”

  • …took early part in promoting civilising and religious agencies in the
  • …Congo as part of the civilising mission which served as the…
  • It differed from the "civilising mission" of other colonial powers…
  • Georgina Whitehead, Civilising the City: A History of…
  • …serve as "the means of civilising and bettering the conditions of…
  • …early 20th century was the civilising mission (mission civilisatrice), the principle…
  • …colonial powers talked of a civilising mission, which mainly involved spreading…
  • …the United States as a civilising global influence.
  • …Andamanese with the aim of "civilising" them.
  • …and also as having a "civilising mission" role within the Islamic…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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