“Defense” or “Defence”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 5 prefer “defense” and 7 prefer “defence”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	defense	defence	Preference
United States	94	6	“defense”
United Kingdom	27	73	“defence”
India	15	85	“defence”
Philippines	90	10	“defense”
Canada	66	34	“defense”
Australia	21	79	“defence”
Liberia	71	29	“defense”
Ireland	32	68	“defence”
New Zealand	33	67	“defence”
Jamaica	49	51	“defence”
Trinidad & Tobago	54	46	“defense”
Guyana	39	61	“defence”

Usage

Examples in context

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

“defense”

…U.S. national security policy and defense strategy.
…Air Force aircraft join Israel Defense Forces tanks in bombarding the…
The Maritime Self Defense Force Officer Candidate School
…served as deputy minister of defense (兵部侍郎, Bingbu Shilang), and also…
…Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy, Stephen Biddle and Jeffrey
…mm guns to bolster their defense of the city.
…1 episode "Abrams For The Defense" as Hector Lincoln, a husband…
Prior to his continental title defense against Bois, Mikhalkin tested positive…
List of defense lines
…clearly humanitarian aims, the necessity defense was not applicable to his

“defence”

Dialogue and the proactive defence of workers' demands in the…
…bars, and blamed the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) for orchestrating it.
Minister of Defence (Norway)
He fought against Oudinot in defence of Berlin, and in the…
The Defence Staff was in 1994 amalgamated…
…Bailey, Leading Fireman, Ministry of Defence.
Defence View Graveyard, Clifton Cantonment
Section 2(5) creates a defence of "innocent dissemination"; if the…
…1970) general of the Estonian Defence Forces
…Campbell, Canada's minister of national defence and (eventually successful) candidate for…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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