“Honorably” or “Honourably”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 3 prefer “honorably” and 4 prefer “honourably”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	honorably	honourably	Preference
United States	100	0	“honorably”
United Kingdom	33	67	“honourably”
India	48	52	“honourably”
Philippines	100	0	“honorably”
Canada	59	41	“honorably”
Australia	33	67	“honourably”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	0	100	“honourably”
New Zealand	0	0	Not enough data
Jamaica	0	0	Not enough data
Trinidad & Tobago	0	0	Not enough data
Guyana	0	0	Not enough data

Usage

Examples in context

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

“honorably”

…until 1947 when he was honorably discharged from the organization.
…served 11 months, eventually being honorably discharged for being physically unfit.
The base is honorably renamed after Lt. General Evangelos…
…which means that he is honorably relieved of all duties and…
Kyle was honorably discharged in 2009, and on…
He was honorably discharged on December 31, 1779,…
He felt he could not honorably return to Boston until his…
…is subjugated takes action (whether honorably or through trickery) to dispose…
…operator and cryptographer, having been honorably discharged as a tech sergeant.
…awards by the Commandant and honorably discharged from the Legion.

“honourably”

…to us should be received honourably and generously, for everyone holds…
…they were expected to serve honourably and for a long period…
…Governor Bellomont, that he served honourably, and that the stories of…
…was tried by court-martial and honourably acquitted, it being proved that…
…allowed to return, and was honourably dismissed with valuable presents.
…as it was, he appeared honourably ineligible for the struggle of
…cars, stating, "Better to lose honourably in a British car than…
The court then unanimously honourably acquitted Perrée.
We will honourably execute all the policies set…
…of his ship and was honourably and deservedly acquitted.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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