Privatisation or privatization?
In American English write privatization; in British and Commonwealth English, privatisation. privatisation is a noun meaning “Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of privatization”; privatization is a noun meaning “The transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) privatization is about as common as privatisation.
What is the difference between privatisation and privatization?
| privatisation | privatization | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | BritishUSThe transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership and control BritishUSThe rendering of a thought or an idea, as private in scope | |
| Example | none recorded | Coordinate term: denationalization |
| Forms | privatisations | privatizations |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌpɹaɪvɪtaɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ /ˌpɹaɪvətaɪˈzeɪʃən/ |
| Region | UK | UK, US |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | 1.9 times per million words |
Sources: privatisation and privatization 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 privatisation and privatization
privatization
- 1
BritishUSThe transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership and control
Coordinate term: denationalization
- 2
BritishUSThe rendering of a thought or an idea, as private in scope
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, privatisation or privatization?
privatisation appears 1.3 times per million words; privatization 1.9 times per million words.
privatisation 1.3 times per million wordsprivatization 1.9 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 privatisation vs privatization?
“privatisation vs privatization” is searched about 10 times a month on Google (Bing reports no separate figure) in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“privatization vs privatisation”, “privatisation or privatization”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.