Paralysed or paralyzed?
paralysed is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of paralyzed”; paralyzed is an adjective meaning “Partly or wholly incapable of movement; disabled”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) paralyzed is about 3.6 times as common as paralysed.
What is the difference between paralysed and paralyzed?
| paralysed | paralyzed | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, verb | adjective, verb |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of paralyzed | Partly or wholly incapable of movement; disabled Rendered incapable of action |
| Example | none recorded | We were paralyzed with fear |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 2.8 times per million words |
Sources: paralysed and paralyzed 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 paralysed and paralyzed
paralysed
- 1
Alternative spelling of paralyzed
paralyzed
- 1
Partly or wholly incapable of movement; disabled
- 2
Rendered incapable of action
We were paralyzed with fear
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, paralysed or paralyzed?
paralysed appears about once in every 1 million words; paralyzed 2.8 times per million words.
paralysed about once in every 1 million wordsparalyzed 2.8 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).