“Plowed” or “Ploughed”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

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

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	plowed	ploughed	Preference
United States	94	6	“plowed”
United Kingdom	34	66	“ploughed”
India	39	61	“ploughed”
Philippines	84	16	“plowed”
Canada	84	16	“plowed”
Australia	51	49	“plowed”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	25	75	“ploughed”
New Zealand	34	66	“ploughed”
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.

“plowed”

Worst Performer: Flora, as she plowed through the foam person (twice)…
…recover, and crashes in a plowed field.
…the original director of Triple-A Plowed Under left in frustration; Joseph…
…be weeks before they were plowed out.
…him: "They never should have plowed them plains."
Fields are usually plowed each year, although no-till farming…
In modern use, a plowed field is typically left to…
…way to settled lands, with plowed fields and lawns visible.
…to, the field was again plowed in 1982; this action is…
Söderling then plowed through Albert Ramos, Leonardo Mayer…

“ploughed”

…participle, laq'a earth (soil), "earth ploughed as waru waru", hispanicized spelling…
…as in now, out and ploughed, was .
It overran the runway and ploughed through a sand arrestor bed,…
Ploughed by Moments
The fields are initially ploughed and then fertiliser is applied…
…design; described by John Aubrey; ploughed up 1730)
…swears and gambles, and has ploughed through numerous private tutors before…
…North Yorkshire (unusual spiral centre; ploughed up 1827)
…profits of these ventures were ploughed back into financing new trade,…
…of land that can be ploughed by a team of eight…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

Too much to remember?

Looking for a tool that handles this for you wherever you write?

Install Sapling Try the grammar checker