Travelling or traveling: which is correct?
Correct
travelling, travelled (UK) / traveling, traveled (US)
Avoid
traveling (in UK English)
Avoid
travelling (in US English)
Summary
Correct: travelling, travelled (UK) / traveling, traveled (US) — Avoid: traveling (in UK English) / travelling (in US English). Travelling / traveling = the present participle of travel, to make a journey; the same split applies to cancelled/canceled, modelling/modeling and labelled/labeled.
Both spellings are correct in their own variety; pick one and use it consistently.
- Part of speech
- verb / adjective
- Source
- Oxford / Merriam-Webster
Why
Oxford: British English doubles the final l before -ing, -ed and -er even when the last syllable is unstressed (travelling, cancelled, modelling); Merriam-Webster keeps a single l in American English (traveling, canceled, modeling). Where the stress falls on the final syllable, both varieties double the letter (controlled, compelled).
Examples
- She is travelling (UK) / traveling (US) through Vietnam this summer.
- The flight was cancelled because of fog.
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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)