“Theater” or “Theatre”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 3 prefer “theater” and 9 prefer “theatre”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	theater	theatre	Preference
United States	76	24	“theater”
United Kingdom	4	96	“theatre”
India	23	77	“theatre”
Philippines	78	22	“theater”
Canada	19	81	“theatre”
Australia	8	92	“theatre”
Liberia	100	0	“theater”
Ireland	7	93	“theatre”
New Zealand	10	90	“theatre”
Jamaica	42	58	“theatre”
Trinidad & Tobago	39	61	“theatre”
Guyana	41	59	“theatre”

Usage

Examples in context

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

“theater”

…visited to a local movie theater, where he came upon the…
…has had its own movie theater since the Marathon Theatre opened…
…Arts Center (formerly Atlas Movie Theater), 1938
…was shot at the Apollo Theater and also featured Kane, who…
Theater version
Live at the Greek Theater 1982 [Live] (2011) (guest appearance…
Chicago's famous Second City Theater was an inspiration for Russell,…
…the Stage: Protestantism and Popular Theater in Early Modern England (1997),…
…the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
…France and at the Fox Theater in the US were performed…

“theatre”

…Fantasticks, in the small 150-seat theatre, spawned a run which lasted…
Waldmüller had her theatre debut in Innsbruck in the…
…Ó Fátharta at The Abbey theatre Archive
…Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University (Theatre…
…Ira Drew || Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Broadway
…at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, and his first…
…at the recently refurbished Dominion Theatre for 55 performances only starring…
…total short stories and one theatre play).
…known for her dance and theatre work
Show of Strength Theatre Company is a Bristol-based theatre…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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