Capitalise or capitalize?
In American English write capitalize; in British and Commonwealth English, capitalise. capitalise is a verb meaning “Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of capitalize”; capitalize is a verb meaning “In writing or editing, to write (something: either an entire word or text, or…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) capitalize is about 4.5 times as common as capitalise.
What is the difference between capitalise and capitalize?
| capitalise | capitalize | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | In writing or editing, to write (something: either an entire word or text, or just the initial letter(s) thereof) in capital letters, in upper case To contribute or acquire capital (money or other resources) for | |
| Example | none recorded | In German, all nouns are capitalized |
| Forms | capitalises, capitalising, capitalised | capitalizes, capitalizing, capitalized |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈkæpətəˌlaɪz/ |
| Region | UK | no label |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 2.2 times per million words |
Sources: capitalise and capitalize 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 capitalise and capitalize
capitalize
- 1
In writing or editing, to write (something: either an entire word or text, or just the initial letter(s) thereof) in capital letters, in upper case
In German, all nouns are capitalized
- 2
To contribute or acquire capital (money or other resources) for
Some states require proof that a new venture is properly capitalized before the state will issue a certificate of incorporation
- 3
To convert into capital, i.e., to get cash or similar immediately fungible resources for some less fungible property or source of future income
If we obtain a loan using the business as collateral, the effect will be to capitalize our next ten years of income, giving us cash today that we can use to buy out our competitor
- 4
To treat as capital, not as an expense
- 5
To profit or to obtain an advantage
The home team took several shots on goal but was unable to capitalize until late in the game
- 6
To seize, as an opportunity; to obtain a benefit from; to invest on something profitable
The home team appeared to have the advantage throughout the game, and finally capitalized on their opponents' weakness with just two minutes remaining, scoring several points in…
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, capitalise or capitalize?
capitalise appears about once in every 2 million words; capitalize 2.2 times per million words.
capitalise about once in every 2 million wordscapitalize 2.2 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 capitalise vs capitalize?
“capitalise vs capitalize” is searched about 40 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“capitalize vs capitalise”, “capitalise or capitalize”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.