“Colonize” or “Colonise”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

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

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	colonize	colonise	Preference
United States	98	2	“colonize”
United Kingdom	42	58	“colonise”
India	49	51	“colonise”
Philippines	96	4	“colonize”
Canada	91	9	“colonize”
Australia	32	68	“colonise”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	56	44	“colonize”
New Zealand	49	51	“colonise”
Jamaica	79	21	“colonize”
Trinidad & Tobago	100	0	“colonize”
Guyana	0	0	Not enough data

Usage

Examples in context

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

“colonize”

…of Smith's followers attempted to colonize Missouri throughout the 1830s, and…
"Colonize the Moon" includes a bonus…
…that rather than attempting to colonize Venus' hostile surface, humans might…
…AD, these hunter-gatherers started to colonize the savannah-forest ecosystem of Esanland…
…introduced species to mature and colonize naturally while observing native and…
…hardware, are being used to colonize various planets.
…the handicap of trying to colonize African areas inhabited by aggressive…
…reproductive adaptations that help it colonize.
…will begin to grow and colonize.
…the United Nations, attempted to colonize Mars.

“colonise”

…unsuccessful attempt in 1585 to colonise Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
…to subdue the local population, colonise and take over their rich…
…esculentum is very quick to colonise disturbed areas and can outcompete…
…by the British Government to colonise the islands, Whittington grew impatient…
Other pathogens which can colonise pools and spas including those…
…allows the species to rapidly colonise new areas.
…the disastrous Darien Scheme to colonise Panama.
…was looking for places to colonise and the Americas appeared ripe…
It was permitted to colonise any depopulated lands, but all…
…the English to plant [or colonise] in Newfoundland."

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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