Analyse or analyze: which is correct?
Correct
analyse (UK) / analyze (US)
Avoid
analyze (in UK English)
Avoid
analyse (in US English)
Summary
Correct: analyse (UK) / analyze (US) — Avoid: analyze (in UK English) / analyse (in US English). Analyse / analyze = to examine something methodically in order to explain or interpret it. The noun analysis is spelled the same way everywhere.
Both spellings are correct in their own variety; pick one and use it consistently.
- Part of speech
- verb
- Source
- Oxford / Merriam-Webster
Why
Oxford: analyse, paralyse and catalyse keep -yse in British English even in Oxford spelling, because they derive from the Greek noun analysis rather than from a verb in -izein; Merriam-Webster gives analyze, paralyze and catalyze as American standard.
Examples
- We need to analyse (UK) / analyze (US) the survey results.
- The lab analysed the water sample within a day.
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- Checked against
- Merriam-Webster / Oxford
- Spelling authority
- Merriam-Webster · Oxford English Dictionary / Oxford spelling · SCOWL
- Commonly confused and non-standard forms
- 64
- Dictionary
- Hunspell en_US / en_GB / en_AU / en_CA · Dictionary license: MIT AND BSD (SCOWL combined licence)