# British

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈbɹɪtɪʃ/ · frequency rank #671

## Definitions
1. The residents or inhabitants of Great Britain.
2. The citizens or inhabitants of the United Kingdom.
3. The earlier inhabitants of southern Britain, prior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion and subsequent migrations.
4. Synonym of Welsh: the Welsh people.

## Etymology
From Middle English Brittish, from Old English Brettisċ.
The spelling with single -t- appears in the 13th century under the influence of Medieval Latin Britannicus, but spelling with -tt- persists alongside -t- during the 13th to at least 18th centuries.
In reference to the island of Great Britain from ca. 1400 (Latin natio Anglica sive Britannica, Brittisshe occean 1398, the Britishe nacion 1548).
As a noun, referring to the British people, British soldiers, etc. from ca. 1600.

## Easily confused with
- **Brits** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/british-vs-brits)
- **brutish** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/british-vs-brutish)

## Common misspellings (11)
`bbritish`, `birtish`, `briitsh`, `britihs`, `britishh`, `britissh`, `britsih`, `brittish`, `brritish`, `brtiish`, `rbitish`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/british