“Colonized” or “Colonised”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 8 prefer “colonized” and 3 prefer “colonised”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	colonized	colonised	Preference
United States	98	2	“colonized”
United Kingdom	46	54	“colonised”
India	62	38	“colonized”
Philippines	99	1	“colonized”
Canada	93	7	“colonized”
Australia	28	72	“colonised”
Liberia	100	0	“colonized”
Ireland	55	45	“colonized”
New Zealand	42	58	“colonised”
Jamaica	82	18	“colonized”
Trinidad & Tobago	100	0	“colonized”
Guyana	0	0	Not enough data

Usage

Examples in context

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

“colonized”

…the sons later emigrated and colonized the island of Seriphos.
…days after Hong Kong was colonized, hawkers took a significant role…
Later, the area was colonized by Spain, which sent the…
…that wels catfish have not colonized are not affected.
…39 500 km2 has been colonized.
Before Fiji was colonized by Great Britain, some planters…
…and German settlers (so-called Donauschwaben) colonized, who had followed the call…
Once plants colonized land however, they required specialized…
…which mirrors the intestinal niche colonized by many of these bacteria.
…recognition that humans, who had colonized all of the Earth's continents,…

“colonised”

…Saint Christopher, an Australian city colonised by the French.
…Sandy Point, and have subsequently colonised the island.
…the lower plants that have colonised the damp rock-faces.
…randomly generated and can be colonised given enough time and technology.
…the war, the village was colonised by Germans.
…the ancestors of which having colonised from Australia.
The Portuguese colonised India in 1510, conquering many…
…the local German population who colonised the valley during the Middle…
Hong Kong Island was first colonised by the British Empire in…
…Cape Peninsula, South Africa (perhaps colonised)

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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