Aluminium or aluminum?
In American English write aluminum; in British and Commonwealth English, aluminium. aluminium is a noun meaning “A light, silvery metal extracted from bauxite, and a chemical element (symbol…”; aluminum is a noun meaning “American, Canadian, and Philippines standard spelling of aluminium”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) aluminum is about 1.9 times as common as aluminium.
What is the difference between aluminium and aluminum?
| aluminium | aluminum | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A light, silvery metal extracted from bauxite, and a chemical element (symbol Al) with an atomic number of 13 An atom of this element | American, Canadian, and Philippines standard spelling of aluminium |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | aluminiums | aluminums |
| Pronunciation | /ˌæl.(j)ʊˈmɪn.i.əm/ /ˌæl.(j)ʊˈmɪn.jəm/ /ˌæl.(j)uˈmɪn.i.əm/ | /əˈlu.mɪ.nəm/ /ˌæl.(j)ʊˈmɪn.jəm/ /əˈluː.mɪ.nəm/ |
| Region | no label | US |
| In writing | 5.4 times per million words | 10 times per million words |
Sources: aluminium and aluminum in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of aluminium and aluminum
aluminium
- 1
A light, silvery metal extracted from bauxite, and a chemical element (symbol Al) with an atomic number of 13
- 2
An atom of this element
- 3
slangAircraft or other machinery made partially or wholly of aluminium
aluminum
- 1
American, Canadian, and Philippines standard spelling of aluminium
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, aluminium or aluminum?
aluminium appears 5.4 times per million words; aluminum 10 times per million words.
aluminium 5.4 times per million wordsaluminum 10 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search aluminium vs aluminum?
“aluminium vs aluminum” is searched about 12,100 times a month on Google and 410 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“aluminum vs aluminium”, “aluminium or aluminum”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.