Synchronisation or synchronization?
In American English write synchronization; in British and Commonwealth English, synchronisation. synchronisation is a noun meaning “Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of synchronization”; synchronization is a noun meaning “The state or property of being synchronized”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) synchronization is about 6.6 times as common as synchronisation.
What is the difference between synchronisation and synchronization?
| synchronisation | synchronization | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | The state or property of being synchronized The arrangement of military actions in time, space, and purpose to produce maximum relative combat power at a decisive place and time | |
| Example | none recorded | The generator went off line when it lost synchronization with the power line |
| Forms | synchronisations | synchronizations |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| Region | UK | no label |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words | 1.3 times per million words |
Sources: synchronisation and synchronization 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 synchronisation and synchronization
synchronization
- 1
The state or property of being synchronized
The generator went off line when it lost synchronization with the power line
- 2
The arrangement of military actions in time, space, and purpose to produce maximum relative combat power at a decisive place and time
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, synchronisation or synchronization?
synchronisation appears about once in every 5 million words; synchronization 1.3 times per million words.
synchronisation about once in every 5 million wordssynchronization 1.3 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 synchronisation vs synchronization?
“synchronisation vs synchronization” is searched about 20 times a month on Google (Bing reports no separate figure) in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“synchronization vs synchronisation”, “synchronisation or synchronization”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.