Wikipedia:Idioms

This describes issues about the use of common idioms and spelling variants for various dialects of English. There are many idioms which differ between American English and British English, Canadian English, Australian English, Indian English, etc. A substantial list of idioms and variants helps to explain the extensive differences in usage.

List of common idioms or variants

The following are some of the major differences. The American English term is listed first, and the British English term second. Other dialects mostly follow British English usage.

1. apartment — flat
2. behavior — behaviour
3. (bank) check — cheque
4. color — colour
5. defense — defence
6. elevator — lift
7. favor — favour
8. first floor — ground floor
9. gray — grey
10. honor — honour
11. hood (car) — bonnet
12. in the hospital — in hospital
13. labor — labour
14. liter — litre
15. meter — metre (length), meter (device/monitor)
16. parentheses — (curved) brackets
17. period (punctuation) — full stop
18. realize — realise
19. roommate — flatmate
20. second floor — first floor
21. soccer — football
22. subway — underground/tube
23. trunk — boot
24. underpass — subway
25. windshield — windscreen
26. zee — zed

See also

• WP:Respelling — techniques to show pronunciations
• Comparison of American and British English
• Wikipedia:List of spelling variants