British-English Dictionary (GB)

It is almost impossible to find a purely British-English dictionary or word list. What is often labelled as 'en-GB' is almost always, in fact, International English.

This dictionary aims to include only those words conforming to the preferred standard of British-English spelling.

Editorial Policy

The original base word list and dictionary contained over 150,000 entries, compiled from various public domain sources. Entries that do not conform to the preferred standard of British-English spelling are removed.

The base word list and dictionary continue to be improved:

• Missing entries are discovered and added
• Ongoing reviews flag undesirable words which are removed. An update is generally issued when several hundred entries have been added since the previous one.

This dictionary contains words conforming to the preferred standard of British-English spelling.

• "-ise" is preferred over "-ize", "-sation" over "-zation", etc.
• US-English spelling is not allowed (e.g. "color", "odor", etc.)
• Some (few) universally-recognised words are allowed and included: Words like "movie", "bike", "soccer", "vacation", et al.
• Common proper names are included; not just common British / English names but also common names from around the world.