“Colonized” or “Colonised”

Language

Colonized and colonised are both English terms.

Usage

Colonized is predominantly used in 🇺🇸 American (US) English (en-US) while colonised 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
colonized	98	46	62	99	93	28	100	55	42	82	100	0
colonised	2	54	38	1	7	72	0	45	58	18	0	0

• In the United States, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (98 to 2).
• In the United Kingdom, there is a 54 to 46 preference for "colonised" over "colonized".
• In India, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (62 to 38).
• In the Philippines, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (99 to 1).
• In Canada, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (93 to 7).
• In Australia, there is a 72 to 28 preference for "colonised" over "colonized".
• In Liberia, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (100 to 0).
• In Ireland, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (55 to 45).
• In New Zealand, there is a 58 to 42 preference for "colonised" over "colonized".
• In Jamaica, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (82 to 18).
• In Trinidad & Tobago, there is a preference for "colonized" over "colonised" (100 to 0).
• In Guyana, there is not enough data to determine a preference between "colonized" and "colonised".

Examples

Below, we provide some examples of when to use colonized or colonised with sample sentences.

Trends

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