“Humors” or “Humours”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 2 prefer “humors” and 6 prefer “humours”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	humors	humours	Preference
United States	79	21	“humors”
United Kingdom	24	76	“humours”
India	35	65	“humours”
Philippines	89	11	“humors”
Canada	40	60	“humours”
Australia	27	73	“humours”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	15	85	“humours”
New Zealand	22	78	“humours”
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.

“humors”

…the four elements and four humors in the human body.
…Culpeper (1616–1654) suggested that the humors acted as governing principles in…
…of American Historians for “Evil Humors and Ardent Spirits: The Rough…
…Day, Rogers caricatured the farcical humors of grave campaign politics.
…to exchange periodicals for Good Humors.
…only a sudarium of its humors; the age of the most…
…developed the concept of three humors that were similar to the…
…an eye on him and humors his bizarre behavior.
…four elements and the four humors.
…considered an imbalance of the humors until the mid 1800s.

“humours”

…which are made of four humours: blood, phlegm, green (or yellow)…
Humours (Ayurveda)
In order to balance the humours, a physician would either remove…
…Laud, and allowed his "peevish humours" and obsession with points of…
…of Ben Jonson's "comedy of humours".
"The Humours of Barrack Street" (reel) (Trad.,
…erotic", while NME said, "The humours of Sioux's frosty larynx are…
…similar to the Greek's four humours (see humorism).
…seen as composed of four humours: cold, hot, moist, and dry.
…G Bell (1913); Richmond Park; humours no.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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