“Millimeters” or “Millimetres”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 10 prefer “millimeters” and 0 prefer “millimetres”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	millimeters	millimetres	Preference
United States	100	0	“millimeters”
United Kingdom	55	45	“millimeters”
India	75	25	“millimeters”
Philippines	98	2	“millimeters”
Canada	79	21	“millimeters”
Australia	50	50	No clear preference
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	61	39	“millimeters”
New Zealand	54	46	“millimeters”
Jamaica	85	15	“millimeters”
Trinidad & Tobago	87	13	“millimeters”
Guyana	83	17	“millimeters”

Usage

Examples in context

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

“millimeters”

…each generally less than 6 millimeters long.
These beetles are a few millimeters long except P. colossus, which…
…is an achene a few millimeters long with a pappus up…
…between pillars of a few millimeters.
…in size from a few millimeters up to 10 cm.
…individual cubic crystallites a few millimeters in size.
…precipitation amount of roughly 70 millimeters (2.75 inches).
…itself is just a few millimeters long and white to pink…
…has a diameter of 66 millimeters.
…with purplish spikelets a few millimeters long.

“millimetres”

…to fit into a 44 millimetres diameter circle, with a maximum…
…the forearm being around 42 millimetres.
…are generally twelve by five millimetres, being quite small and having…
…an average length of 18-19 millimetres.
…size from less than five millimetres to several centimetres.
…replica of the decoration, 8 millimetres in diameter and struck in…
…to rainfall rates (R) in millimetres per hour using the Marshall-Palmer
…relief sculpture with carving only millimetres deep.
Black dots of a few millimetres in diameter may also be…
…the nominal bar diameter in millimetres.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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