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“License” or “Licence”

Language

License and licence are both English terms.

Usage

License is predominantly used in 🇺🇸 American (US) English (en-US) while licence is predominantly used in 🇬🇧 British English (used in UK/AU/NZ) (en-GB).

In terms of actual appearance and usage, here's a breakdown by country, with usage level out of 100 (if available) 👇:

Term US UK India Philippines Canada Australia Liberia Ireland New Zealand Jamaica Trinidad & Tobago Guyana
license 97 34 48 95 82 43 100 28 53 82 86 80
licence 3 66 52 5 18 57 0 72 47 18 14 20

  • In the United States, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (97 to 3).
  • In the United Kingdom, there is a 66 to 34 preference for "licence" over "license".
  • In India, there is a 52 to 48 preference for "licence" over "license".
  • In the Philippines, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (95 to 5).
  • In Canada, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (82 to 18).
  • In Australia, there is a 57 to 43 preference for "licence" over "license".
  • In Liberia, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (100 to 0).
  • In Ireland, there is a 72 to 28 preference for "licence" over "license".
  • In New Zealand, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (53 to 47).
  • In Jamaica, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (82 to 18).
  • In Trinidad & Tobago, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (86 to 14).
  • In Guyana, there is a preference for "license" over "licence" (80 to 20).
Examples

Below, we provide some examples of when to use license or licence with sample sentences.

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Examples in Context

Examples of “license”

  • wreck that the first salvage license in South Carolina was granted
  • After earning his pilot's license and undergoing advanced training, he
  • CD of the soundtrack, under license from Turner Entertainment; in the
  • on the station's city of license and followed in parentheses by
  • No license is required for such vehicles.
  • from the footage, where the license plate of Dincă's car happened
  • the late 1990s, the inventors licensed PMS (UK), a toy retailer,
  • 18, 2013, CodComm applied for license to cover with the FCC
  • unit as well as technology license fees.
  • Funda Payan obtained her license on May 25, 2011.

Examples of “licence”

  • Yorkshire Television is re-awarded its licence having bid £37.7 million to
  • their take on the Batman licence, and by May 2007, they
  • Melbourne Victory had won the licence to be the only Melbourne
  • newspapers that needed a royal licence to operate.
  • the licensee's rights under the licence contract.
  • The NRU reactor licence expired in 2016.
  • Polly had been refused a licence.
  • Stacey Baggs relinquished her licence to work for Ricky Holloway
  • studying for her commercial pilot's licence and who became her friend.
  • Brisset received a Licence d'anglais from the Université de


(Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.)


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