Defence or defense?
defence is a noun meaning “The action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury”; defense is a noun meaning “The action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) defense is about 2.6 times as common as defence.
What is the difference between defence and defense?
| defence | defense | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | UKThe action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury UKSomething used to oppose attacks | USThe action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury USA strategy and tactics employed to prevent the other team from scoring; contrasted with offense USTo employ defensive tactics (so as to block) |
| Example | Department of Defence | to come to someone's defense |
| Forms | defences | defenses |
| Pronunciation | /dɪˈfɛns/ | /dɪˈfɛns/ /ˈdiːˌfɛns/ |
| In writing | 32 times per million words | 85 times per million words |
Sources: defence and defense 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 defence and defense
defence
- 1
UKThe action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury
- 2
UKSomething used to oppose attacks
- 3
UKAn argument in support or justification of something
- 4
UKA strategy and tactics employed to prevent the other team from scoring; contrasted with offence
- 5
UKThe portion of a team dedicated to preventing the other team from scoring; contrasted with offence
- 6
UKGovernment policy or (infra)structure related to the military
Department of Defence
defense
- 1
USThe action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury
- 2
USTo employ defensive tactics (so as to block)
- 3
USA strategy and tactics employed to prevent the other team from scoring; contrasted with offense
- 4
USThe portion of a team dedicated to preventing the other team from scoring; contrasted with offense
- 5
USAn argument in support or justification of something
to come to someone's defense
- 6
USThe case presented by the defendant in a legal proceeding
- 7
USThe lawyer or team thereof who presents such a case
- 8
USGovernment policy or (infra)structure related to the military
Department of Defense
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, defence or defense?
defence appears 32 times per million words; defense 85 times per million words.
defence 32 times per million wordsdefense 85 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 defence vs defense?
“defence vs defense” is searched about 18,100 times a month on Google and 1,140 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“defense vs defence”, “defence or defense”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.