<P> For advice / advise and device / devise, American English and British English both keep the noun--verb distinction both graphically and phonetically (where the pronunciation is - / s / for the noun and - / z / for the verb). For licence / license or practice / practise, British English also keeps the noun--verb distinction graphically (although phonetically the two words in each pair are homophones with - / s / pronunciation). On the other hand, American English uses license and practice for both nouns and verbs (with - / s / pronunciation in both cases too). </P> <P> American English has kept the Anglo - French spelling for defense and offense, which are defence and offence in British English . Likewise, there are the American pretense and British pretence; but derivatives such as defensive, offensive, and pretension are always thus spelled in both systems . </P> <P> Australian and Canadian usage generally follows British . </P> <P> The spelling connexion is now rare in everyday British usage, its use lessening as knowledge of Latin lessens, and it is not used at all in the US: the more common connection has become the standard worldwide . According to the Oxford English Dictionary the older spelling is more etymologically conservative, since the original Latin word had - xio - . The American usage comes from Webster, who abandoned - xion and preferred - ction . Connexion was still the house style of The Times of London until the 1980s and was still used by the British Post Office for its telephone services in the 1970s, but had by then been overtaken by connection in regular usage (for example, in more popular newspapers). </P>

List of words spelled differently in british and american english