Characterisation or characterization?
characterisation is a noun meaning “Alternative form of characterization”; characterization is a noun meaning “The act or process of characterizing”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) characterization is about 4.4 times as common as characterisation.
What is the difference between characterisation and characterization?
| characterisation | characterization | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | UKAlternative form of characterization | The act or process of characterizing |
| Example | none recorded | Near-synonyms: portrayal, representation; definition |
| Forms | characterisations | characterizations |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌkæɹəktəɹaɪˈzeɪʃən/ /ˌkæɹəktəɹəˈzeɪʃən/ /ˌkɛɹəktəɹəˈzeɪʃən/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 3.4 times per million words |
Sources: characterisation and characterization 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 characterisation and characterization
characterisation
- 1
UKAlternative form of characterization
characterization
- 1
The act or process of characterizing
Near-synonyms: portrayal, representation; definition
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, characterisation or characterization?
characterisation appears about once in every 1 million words; characterization 3.4 times per million words.
characterisation about once in every 1 million wordscharacterization 3.4 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 characterisation vs characterization?
“characterisation vs characterization” is searched about 10 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“characterization vs characterisation”, “characterisation or characterization”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.