Anaesthetic or anesthetic?
anaesthetic is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of anesthetic”; anesthetic is an adjective meaning “Causing anesthesia; reducing pain sensitivity”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) anesthetic is about as common as anaesthetic.
What is the difference between anaesthetic and anesthetic?
| anaesthetic | anesthetic | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | CommonwealthAlternative spelling of anesthetic | CanadaUSCausing anesthesia; reducing pain sensitivity CanadaUSInsensate: unable to feel, or unconscious CanadaUSA substance administered to reduce the perception of pain or to induce numbness for surgery and may render the recipient unconscious |
| Example | none recorded | After a local anesthetic is applied to the eye, do not rub or wipe the eye until the anesthetic has worn off and feeling in the eye returns |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌænəsˈθɛtɪk/ /ˌænəsˈtɛtɪk/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 1.1 times per million words |
Sources: anaesthetic and anesthetic 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 anaesthetic and anesthetic
anaesthetic
- 1
CommonwealthAlternative spelling of anesthetic
- 2
CommonwealthAlternative spelling of anesthetic
anesthetic
- 1
CanadaUSCausing anesthesia; reducing pain sensitivity
- 2
CanadaUSA substance administered to reduce the perception of pain or to induce numbness for surgery and may render the recipient unconscious
After a local anesthetic is applied to the eye, do not rub or wipe the eye until the anesthetic has worn off and feeling in the eye returns
- 3
CanadaUSInsensate: unable to feel, or unconscious
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, anaesthetic or anesthetic?
anaesthetic appears about once in every 1 million words; anesthetic 1.1 times per million words.
anaesthetic about once in every 1 million wordsanesthetic 1.1 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 anaesthetic vs anesthetic?
“anaesthetic vs anesthetic” is searched about 110 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“anesthetic vs anaesthetic”, “anaesthetic or anesthetic”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.