“Decriminalized” or “Decriminalised”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

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

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	decriminalized	decriminalised	Preference
United States	99	1	“decriminalized”
United Kingdom	46	54	“decriminalised”
India	46	54	“decriminalised”
Philippines	100	0	“decriminalized”
Canada	95	5	“decriminalized”
Australia	36	64	“decriminalised”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	45	55	“decriminalised”
New Zealand	56	44	“decriminalized”
Jamaica	100	0	“decriminalized”
Trinidad & Tobago	100	0	“decriminalized”
Guyana	0	0	Not enough data

Usage

Examples in context

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

“decriminalized”

…concluded that marijuana should be decriminalized, but that public use and…
2017: Georgia decriminalized cannabis.
…the law has been already decriminalized to a large extent by…
2006: Brazil decriminalized possession and cultivation of personal…
2003: Belgium decriminalized cannabis.
…new constitution was promulgated which decriminalized religious conversion, but retained the…
…illegal for recreational use, though decriminalized for possession of small amounts.
2001: Luxembourg decriminalized cannabis.
…liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality, permitted cohabitation, and ushered…
Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1961.

“decriminalised”

Homosexual acts in Romania were decriminalised in 1996.
…into as it is not decriminalised.
…of the private bill which decriminalised homosexuality in Britain.
…the laws of independent Poland decriminalised homosexuality, which was legal then,…
Homosexual acts were decriminalised on the Isle of Man…
…'Crimes (Amendment) Act 1984', which decriminalised homosexual acts in NSW, describing…
In 2003, New Zealand decriminalised sex work with the introduction…
…Sexual Offences Act 1967 had decriminalised homosexual acts in most of…
…charge, even after homosexuality was decriminalised, on the basis that an…
Several countries in Europe have decriminalised non-sexual toplessness.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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