Fertiliser or fertilizer?
fertiliser is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of fertilizer”; fertilizer is a noun meaning “A natural substance that is used to make the ground more suitable for growing…”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) fertilizer is about 3.6 times as common as fertiliser.
What is the difference between fertiliser and fertilizer?
| fertiliser | fertilizer | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | UKAlternative spelling of fertilizer | A natural substance that is used to make the ground more suitable for growing plants A chemical compound created to have the same effect |
| Example | none recorded | The farmer spread fertiliser across the fields |
| Forms | fertilisers | fertilizers |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈfɜːtəlaɪzə/ /ˈfɜːɹtəlaɪzəɹ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 2.6 times per million words |
Sources: fertiliser and fertilizer 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 fertiliser and fertilizer
fertiliser
- 1
UKAlternative spelling of fertilizer
fertilizer
- 1
A natural substance that is used to make the ground more suitable for growing plants
The farmer spread fertiliser across the fields
- 2
A chemical compound created to have the same effect
- 3
derogatoryHuman remains, especially obscured or to be forgotten
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, fertiliser or fertilizer?
fertiliser appears about once in every 1 million words; fertilizer 2.6 times per million words.
fertiliser about once in every 1 million wordsfertilizer 2.6 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).