Center or centre?
In American English write center; in British and Commonwealth English, centre. center is a noun meaning “The point in the interior of a circle that is equidistant from all points on…”; centre is a noun meaning “Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa standard spelling…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) center is about 1.7 times as common as centre.
What is the difference between center and centre?
| center | centre | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | CanadaUSThe point in the interior of a circle that is equidistant from all points on the circumference CanadaUSThe point in the interior of a sphere that is equidistant from all points on the circumference CanadaUSOf, at, or related to a center | Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa standard spelling of center |
| Example | The centroid is one of the centres of a triangle | none recorded |
| Forms | centers | centres |
| Pronunciation | /ˈsɛn.təː/ [ˈsɛn.tʰəː] /ˈsɛn.tɚ/ | /ˈsɛntəː/ [ˈsɛntʰəː] /ˈsɛntɚ/ |
| Region | Canada, US | Canada, Ireland, UK |
| In writing | 155 times per million words | 89 times per million words |
Sources: center and centre 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 center and centre
center
- 1
CanadaUSThe point in the interior of a circle that is equidistant from all points on the circumference
- 2
CanadaUSOf, at, or related to a center
- 3
CanadaUSTo cause (an object) to occupy the center of an area
????, Matthew Prior, Celia to Damon Thy joys are centred all in me alone
- 4
CanadaUSThe point in the interior of a sphere that is equidistant from all points on the circumference
- 5
CanadaUSTo cause (some attribute, such as a mood or voltage) to be adjusted to a value which is midway between the extremes
- 6
CanadaUSThe middle portion of something; the part well away from the edges
- 7
CanadaUSTo give (something) a central basis
- 8
CanadaUSThe point on a line that is midway between the ends
centre
- 1
Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa standard spelling of center
- 2
CanadaIrelandUKAlternative spelling of center
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, center or centre?
center appears 155 times per million words; centre 89 times per million words.
center 155 times per million wordscentre 89 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 center vs centre?
“center vs centre” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 140 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“centre vs center”, “center or centre”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.