Why is color spelled colour

You can remember to use colour with primarily British audiences by noticing the U that colo u r has in common with United Kingdom. Since there is no U in the word America, you will know not to use colour when writing for American audiences. Is it color or colour? Color and colour are alternative spellings of the same word. As a noun, the word refers to the various shades of visible light reflected back to the eye from a surface.

As a verb, it refers to the action of imparting color to an object. You can remember to use colour with British audiences by noticing the U that colour has in common with United Kingdom.

The following graph will give you the visual. As you can see, if you graph both spellings of the word, American publications use the version color much more frequently than colour after the early s. No doubt, this earlier spelling was likely because of the influence of being a former British colony. Another interesting tidbit about the word color is that it is a loanword taken from Latin.

This lexical term means the word was accepted into the adoptive language as written without any changes. As such, this loanword may give the American spelling a bit more credence.

Many other British words use this phonogram as well: behaviour, honour, neighbour, rumour, all revealing a truly British flavor.

Spelling differences in writing are often easily overlooked. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Capitalize My Title. Table of Contents. Conclusion It is apparent that these two styles of the English language are not so very different except for some slight spelling differences. Capitalize My Title is a dynamic title capitalization tool used to make sure your titles or headlines use proper capitalization rules according to various style guides include APA, AP, MLA, and Chicago.

It also counts your words and checks for grammar issues. How Do You Spell Speech? Or Is It Speach? Color was one of these alterations. When to use colour : This has the exact same meaning and usage as color. It can mean a pigment or hue as a noun, or the act of adding color as a verb.

The only difference is that this is the spelling you use if you are using British English. The expressions are the same as those used with color. The colour spelling occurs in the Commonwealth of Nations, countries that were formerly controlled by the British. There are a few ways to help you remember when to use color versus colour. First, many more nations use colour.