“Skeptically” or “Sceptically”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 5 prefer “skeptically” and 1 prefer “sceptically”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	skeptically	sceptically	Preference
United States	96	4	“skeptically”
United Kingdom	51	49	“skeptically”
India	70	30	“skeptically”
Philippines	100	0	“skeptically”
Canada	86	14	“skeptically”
Australia	41	59	“sceptically”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	0	0	Not enough data
New Zealand	0	0	Not enough data
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.

“skeptically”

…has led some researchers to skeptically consider this impairment as a…
…reporter for the campus newspaper, skeptically questions her about a trip…
…become less able "to think skeptically and scientifically about it."
…host for Ardent Atheists and Skeptically Yours podcasts.
…rule is apparently to read skeptically the writings of the past,…
…often come to be viewed skeptically by modern anthropologists.
More skeptically, "...[T]here is no direct contemporary…
…(h-m), many grammarians view coordination skeptically regarding its value as a…
…were unsupported and viewed very skeptically.
…and must be treated very skeptically.

“sceptically”

…the Labyrinth must be treated sceptically.'
…war with the Soviet Union sceptically and did not hesitate to…
…such as John Bryan Perkins, sceptically uses ancient sources as evidence…
He examines sceptically Bill Richardson's place name explanations…
…and Professor Richard Whish wrote sceptically that it "seems unlikely at…
…by encouraging convictions, or by "sceptically testing the witnesses to destruction".
…first the Lindau population remained sceptically opposed to the new ruling
…are to be treated very sceptically.
Seed cycling has been greeted sceptically by the press, with headlines…
His poems treat Buddhism sceptically.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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