“Colonizing” or “Colonising”

Language

Colonizing and colonising are both English terms.

Usage

Colonizing is predominantly used in 🇺🇸 American (US) English (en-US) while colonising 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
colonizing	98	33	50	100	95	33	0	100	28	72	100	0
colonising	2	67	50	0	5	67	0	0	72	28	0	0

• In the United States, there is a preference for "colonizing" over "colonising" (98 to 2).
• In the United Kingdom, there is a 67 to 33 preference for "colonising" over "colonizing".
• In India, there is no clear preference between "colonizing" and "colonising", with usage levels of 50 vs. 50.
• In the Philippines, there is a preference for "colonizing" over "colonising" (100 to 0).
• In Canada, there is a preference for "colonizing" over "colonising" (95 to 5).
• In Australia, there is a 67 to 33 preference for "colonising" over "colonizing".
• In Liberia, there is not enough data to determine a preference between "colonizing" and "colonising".
• In Ireland, there is a preference for "colonizing" over "colonising" (100 to 0).
• In New Zealand, there is a 72 to 28 preference for "colonising" over "colonizing".
• In Jamaica, there is a preference for "colonizing" over "colonising" (72 to 28).
• In Trinidad & Tobago, there is a preference for "colonizing" over "colonising" (100 to 0).
• In Guyana, there is not enough data to determine a preference between "colonizing" and "colonising".

Examples

Below, we provide some examples of when to use colonizing or colonising with sample sentences.

Trends

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