Maximise or maximize?
In American English write maximize; in British and Commonwealth English, maximise. maximise is a verb meaning “Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of maximize”; maximize is a verb meaning “To make as large as possible”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) maximize is about 3.4 times as common as maximise.
What is the difference between maximise and maximize?
| maximise | maximize | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | To make as large as possible To expand (a window) to fill the main display area | |
| Example | none recorded | I need to maximize performance |
| Forms | maximises, maximising, maximised | maximizes, maximizing, maximized |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmæksəmaɪz/ | /ˈmæksəmaɪz/ |
| Region | UK | no label |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | 4.3 times per million words |
Sources: maximise and maximize 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 maximise and maximize
maximize
- 1
To make as large as possible
I need to maximize performance
- 2
To expand (a window) to fill the main display area
Since I only have one window open, I maximized the window so that the desktop is not visible
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, maximise or maximize?
maximise appears 1.3 times per million words; maximize 4.3 times per million words.
maximise 1.3 times per million wordsmaximize 4.3 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 maximise vs maximize?
“maximise vs maximize” 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 (“maximize vs maximise”, “maximise or maximize”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.