Stylo

Oxford spelling is one of the three chief ways to spell English. The other two are British and American spelling.

For Oxford spelling the rule is simple:

Prefer the spelling the Oxford dictionary lists first for a given word.

Roughly speaking Oxford spelling is British spelling with -ize instead of -ise. In computer circles it is called en-GB-oed.

Who uses Oxford spelling:

  • Oxford English Dictionary (OED) - by definition
  • Oxford University Press
  • Penguin
  • United Nations, including UNESCO, WHO and so on
  • Amnesty International
  • Nature
  • Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Interzone
  • this blog

It seems that the Times and the Times Supplement once used Oxford spellings. Both now follow ordinary British spelling.

How Oxford spelling compares: by using Google you can find the preferred spelling for any word in any country. I chose 13 Oxford spellings that are not universal and compared them to the preferred spelling in 12 countries - and on three websites as well:

  • Oxford spellings: ageing, aluminium, analyse, centre, fetus, fulfil, haemorrhage, honour, judgement, recognize, spelled, travelling, yogurt.
  • With 3 differences:
    • Al Jazeera: foetus, judgment, recognise.
    • South Africa: recognise, spelt, yoghurt.
  • With 4 differences:
    • BBC, Britain, Australia, New Zealand: foetus,
      recognise, spelt, yoghurt
    • Ireland: foetus, judgment, recognise, yoghurt
    • The Economist: aluminum, judgment, recognise, yoghurt.
    • Jamaica: aging, fulfill, judgment, spelt.
  • With 5 differences:
    • Nigeria: analyze, fulfill, judgment, spelt, yoghurt.
    • Canada: aging, aluminum, fulfill, hemorrhage, judgment.
  • With 6 differences:
    • Singapore: aging, fulfill, foetus, judgment, recognise, spelt.
    • India: aging, analyze, foetus, fulfill, judgment, spelt.
    • Pakistan: aging, aluminum, analyze, fulfill, hemorrhage, judgment.
  • With 7 differences:
  • With 8 differences:
  • With 9 differences:
    • America: aging, aluminum, analyze, center, fulfill, hemorrhage, honor, judgment, traveling.

Notice that most follow neither a pure British nor a pure American spelling. Not even The Economist and Al Jazeera.

The most common differences between the three spellings concern recognize and honour. On each Oxford sides with most of the English-speaking world:

  honor honour
recognise Singapore,
The Economist,
Ireland,
BBC, Britain, New Zealand, Australia,
Al Jazeera, South Africa,
recognize America OED, this blog
Jamaica,
Nigeria, Canada,
India, Pakistan

America and India outnumber Britain and its followers in their use of recognise, while America stands alone in its use of honor.

On some other spellings, though, Oxford is outnumbered:

judgment, fulfill, analyze, aging, spelt, foetus

The OED prefers spellings that are closer to a word’s origins. Yogurt is closer to the original Turkish than yoghurt, fetus is closer to the original Latin, -ize and analyse are closer to the original Greek and so on.

Note that there are some differences in spelling from one Oxford dictionary to the next. Some prefer the more British spelt or foetus over spelled and fetus, for example. The “Concise Oxford English Dictionary” is the one most follow and which is followed here.

I follow the Oxford spelling because I use the Oxford dictionary (since it is the best there is). I used to follow The Economist’s spelling, but it is much easier to look up the Oxford spelling for a given word. Also, as even the United Nations recognizes, OED English is the closest thing we have to a world English.

See also: