“Humorless” or “Humourless”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

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

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	humorless	humourless	Preference
United States	100	0	“humorless”
United Kingdom	13	87	“humourless”
India	59	41	“humorless”
Philippines	100	0	“humorless”
Canada	100	0	“humorless”
Australia	28	72	“humourless”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	0	100	“humourless”
New Zealand	0	100	“humourless”
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.

“humorless”

…as an absolute shock how humorless the results are.
…of fun distinguishes him from humorless idol-worshipers and from slapstick cretins..."…
…imagined as a “a moody, humorless trickster” who “passes himself off…
…wine-growing village of Montpaillard, the humorless gamekeeper Parju is determined to…
…case study, she is too humorless to be an appealing villainess".
…possessed, and become slow, ponderous, humorless [and] pretentious."
…film, that's played straight-forward, is humorless and all the thespians are
…called the film "superficial, unsubtle, humorless yet stylishly horrific, appealingly gruesome…
…to be extremely irritable and humorless.
…movie so square, conservative and humorless that it winds up playing…

“humourless”

…been described as "laconic and humourless", "a little stiff" and "annoying…
…on the screen is charmless, humourless and boring—the one thing you…
…firm management style, while often humourless and strict, gained him the…
…an effective but hard-driving commander, humourless and not universally liked, sometimes…
…perceived to be stiff and humourless.
…"the story is lumbering and humourless, with much of what is…
…on in that earnest and humourless way peculiar to people who…
…describes her unsympathetically as "a humourless and somewhat priggish person, with…
…topped any popularity charts, being humourless and insistent on doing everything…
…everyone there is almost completely humourless, and that it has something…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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