Glossary of American terms not widely used in the United Kingdom
Glossary of British terms not widely used in the United States
List of garments having different names in American and British English
Lists of words having different meanings in American and British English:
(A–L
M–Z)
Works
Works with different titles in the UK and US
v
t
e
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE)[3] is the set of varieties of the English language native to the island of Great Britain.[6] More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the British Isles taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English, Welsh English, and Ulster English. Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity".[7]
Variations exist in formal (both written and spoken) English in the United Kingdom. For example, the adjective wee is almost exclusively used in parts of Scotland, north-east England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally Yorkshire, whereas the adjective little is predominant elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in written English within the United Kingdom, and this could be described by the term British English. The forms of spoken English, however, vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken[8] and so a uniform concept of British English is more difficult to apply to the spoken language.
Globally, countries that are former British colonies or members of the Commonwealth tend to follow British English, as is the case for English used within the European Union.[9] In China, both British English and American English are taught.[10] The UK government actively teaches and promotes English around the world and operates in over 200 countries.[11][12][13]
^"English". IANA language subtag registry. 16 October 2005. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
^"United Kingdom". IANA language subtag registry. 16 October 2005. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
^"British English". Lexico.com. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
^"British English; Hiberno-English". Oxford English Dictionary (2 ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1989.
^The Oxford English Dictionary applies the term to English as "spoken or written in the British Isles; esp[ecially] the forms of English usual in Great Britain", reserving "Hiberno-English" for the "English language as spoken and written in Ireland".[4] Others, such as the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, define it as the "English language as it is spoken and written in England".[5]
^McArthur (2002), p. 45.
^Jeffries, Stuart (27 March 2009). "The G2 Guide to Regional English". The Guardian. section G2, p. 12.
^New Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. 2016.
^Odinye, Sunny (2016). "A study of British and American English for Chinese students". Dezuruigbo Journal.
^"British Council". GOV.UK. 19 July 2018. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
^"Learn English Online". British Council. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
^"About BBC Learning English". Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
BritishEnglish (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is the set of varieties of the English language native to the island of Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer...
The English language was introduced to the Americas by the arrival of the British, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The language also...
in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American spelling. Many of the differences between American and British/Commonwealth...
"General British" (to parallel "General American") in his 1970s publication of A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of American and BritishEnglish and in subsequent...
island of Great Britain. English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded...
spoken and written in England include English English and Anglo-English. The related term BritishEnglish is ambiguous, so it can be used and interpreted...
Word » American vs. British Smackdown: Station wagon vs. estate car". Retrieved April 18, 2019. British author George Orwell (in English People, 1947, cited...
American English in most regards, classifiable together as North American English, Canadian English also possesses elements from BritishEnglish as well...
official maps and documents with British Channel or British Sea for much of the next century. However, the term English Channel remained popular and was...
country[citation needed]. As such, a single "British accent" does not exist. Someone could be said to have an English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent, although...
The British Raj (/rɑːdʒ/ RAHJ; from Hindi rāj, 'kingdom', 'realm', 'state', or 'empire') was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;...
variety of English known as Multicultural BritishEnglish (MBE), also known as Multicultural Urban BritishEnglish (MUBE) or Urban BritishEnglish (abbreviated...
delimiters. English in Southern England (also, rarely, Southern EnglishEnglish; Southern England English; or in the UK, simply, Southern English) is the...
to 1825, as defined by Queen Elizabeth I. In England (and the British Empire), English units were replaced by Imperial units in 1824 (effective as of...
British Empire became the global hegemon was later described as Pax Britannica (Latin for "British Peace"). Alongside the formal control that Britain...
Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, and a component of His Majesty's Naval Service. Although warships were used by English and Scottish...
pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling. Sterling...
the English Wikipedia concerns which national variety of the English language is to be preferred, two candidates being American English and British English...
in BritishEnglish, Hiberno-English and Commonwealth English in American English, Newfoundland English and Philippine English in BritishEnglish in British...
Malaysian English, Malaysian Colloquial English (Manglish) and BritishEnglish, which for the purposes of this article is assumed to be the form of English spoken...
and BritishEnglish (A–L) List of words having different meanings in American and BritishEnglish (M–Z) List of English homographs Lists of English words...
English began to diverge from British and Hiberno-English after the First Fleet established the Colony of New South Wales in 1788. Australian English...
influenced by the concept of social class, which continues to affect British society today. British society, like its European neighbours and most societies in...
Words with specific American meanings that have different meanings in BritishEnglish and/or additional meanings common to both dialects (e.g., pants, crib)...
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The...
simplified family tree of the English, Scottish, and British monarchs. For more-detailed charts see: Family tree of English monarchs, from Alfred the Great...
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in...
two keyboards and the differences between American English and BritishEnglish by having two English language options — a UK setting and a US setting....
The regnal years of English and British monarchs are the official regnal years of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England from 1066 to May 1707, the Kingdom...