Tardis:Spelling cheat card

Use British English Spelling → What SpellBot actually corrects → Spell checking → Spell checking with a Mac → Spell checking with Firefox → Spell checking with Chrome → Spell checking with Opera → SpellBot → Full sentences → Grammar → Spelling we've agreed by discussion → Spelling cheat card

This is a list of some of the more common spelling mistakes made on this wiki. All users should read this list carefully, but American users in particular should take a hard look at it.

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T:SPELL CHEAT
T:SCC

At this wiki, we've taken a community stand to use British English in our main article space, and we therefore have a strict policy to support that consensus. However, a lot of our editors are American, which means that they won't think they're making mistakes at all. The help file, How can I get my computer to spell check in British English?, gives tips on how you can make it easier to spot the mistakes you probably don't even know you're making.

Most people understand the -our differences. The bot almost never finds anyone misspelling colour, neighbour, favour or humour.

However, there are some words that are so commonly misspelt they deserve to be highlighted in the following spelling cheat card. These, then, are the words our spelling bot constantly corrects, in rough order of number of occurrences.

Correct (UK)	Incorrect (US)
materialise dematerialise, rematerialise, materialisation Oddly, you will find one or two primary sources, mainly TVC stories, where the letterer chooses to use the -ize form. Nevertheless, this is clearly not preferred British usage.	materialize
realise realisation, realising, realised	realize
recognise recognises, recognised	recognize
colonise colonises, colonised, colonising	colonize
traveller This is a bit controversial, because traveler is an acceptable alternate British spelling. However, traveller is by far the dominant British spelling, so the bot will correct for it.	traveler
ageing de-ageing	aging
synthesise synthesising	synthesize
centre centring, centred, self-centred	center
labelled labelling but the base label has only one l	labeled
randomise therefore, randomiser	randomize
criticise criticising, criticised	criticized
appal appals (but appalling and appalled are correct)	appall
mobilise mobilising, mobilised, immobilised, immobilising	mobilize
humorous This one is "overcompensation" — humour, humoured, humouring are all correct, but the US and UK agree on how to spell humorous	humourous
organise organisation, organising, organised	organized
hypnotise hypnotised, hypnotising	hypnotized
cancelled cancelling, cancellation	canceled, canceling, cancelation (though, actually, cancellation is correct on both sides of the Atlantic)
chanelled chanelling	chaneled
instalment This is a tricky one. Instalment derives from the UK-only way of spelling install, instal. The British tend to use install as the base for most other forms of the word, just like Americans do. So installing, installed etc. are seen as correct by at least some Britons. But instalment is, for whatever reasons, firmly seen as the absolutely correct British spelling.	installment
fulfil fulfils (but fulfilling and fulfilled are correct)	fulfill