History UsefulNotes / SeparatedByACommonLanguage

* The Spaniard phrase ''por la cara'' is a literal translation of the British phrase "by the face" which normally mean "free" in Spain and the U.K. but in Mexico ''por la cara'' would be translated as "receiving something in the face" (normally a punch).

* ''Deadly'': Aside from its usual meaning, in Ireland and among UsefulNotes/AustralianAborigines, it's also a slang term for "cool". This causes confusion in the rest of the English-speaking world. In Australia, the term has become synonymous with Aboriginal culture (''e.g.'' the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts-sports-media award show is called the "Deadly Awards").

* ''Torrid'': In a sports context, used totally differently. An UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague team that's off to a "torrid start" is at the bottom of the table and in danger of relegation. A UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer team that's off to a "torrid start" is on top of the standings [[note]]"Table" in this context is only used in the US in soccer because of the British influence[[/note]] and likely already booked its playoff spot. [[note]]And we should also point out that there's no playoffs in EPL and no relegation in MLS. Sports are funny.[[/note]]

* Where most places have a word that ends in ''-re'', the US may use ''-er'' (''e.g.'' "centre" vs. "center", "theatre" vs. "theater"). This is designed to reflect where English words were borrowed directly from Latin; where words are borrowed from French, in the US they keep the ''-re'' ending (''e.g.'' "genre").
* Where most places have a word that ends in ''-our'', the US may use ''-or'' (''e.g.'' "colour" vs. "color", "favour" vs. "favor"). This one was a popular one, because it helped bring those words in line with more typical pronunciations (as opposed to words like "hour" or "tour"). It also keeps it consistent with variant forms which don't use ''-our'' anywhere (''e.g.'' "humour", but "humorous"; "honour", but "honorary" and "honorific"). This particular change also has an interesting artifact (or "artefact") in Australia, where one of [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics the two major parties]] is called the Labor Party, even as the word is spelled "labour" in pretty much every other application in Australia.[[note]]As the other major party, the Liberal Party, is "liberal" in the classical economic sense rather than in the social sense, it leads to the common joke in Australia that among the two major parties, one can't spell and the other can't use a dictionary.[[/note]] There are also a few odd exceptions in America, such as "glamour" (which may originally be Scottish) and "saviour" (also often spelled "savior", but occasionally given the ''-our'' ending, especially in religious contexts). Canada seems to be even more enthusiastic about ''-our'' than even Britain; "honourary" will fly there.

* The UK may repeat letters when inflecting certain words where the US does not (''e.g.'' "focuses" vs. "focusses", "traveler" vs. "traveller", "canceled" vs. "cancelled", "marvelous" vs. "marvellous"). Confusingly, British English does sometimes accept the single-letter variant. On the American side, this was an incomplete adoption of Webster's suggestion to eliminate double letters as much as possible; had he had his way, we would have spellings like "bailif", whereas it's always "bailiff".. But confusingly, the British -- but ''not'' the Americans -- may drop the extra letter in derivatives of ''those'' words, leading to distinctions like "fulfil" (UK) vs. "fulfill" (US), "wilful" (UK) vs. "willful" (US) and "instalment" (UK) vs. "installment" (US).

* And some words are just weird and different on opposite sides of the pond. Compare US "tire" to UK "tyre"; US "curb" to UK "kerb"[[note]]Americans, we have a redirect for KerbStompBattle if you don't believe us[[/note]]; US "yogurt" to UK "yoghurt"; US "program" to UK "programme"; and US "aluminum" to UK "aluminium".

* The word "meant" has an additional usage in the UK where the US would use "supposed". For instance, if you ask, "Who am I meant to be?", an American would almost always think you're contemplating your own existence, whereas depending on the context (''e.g.'' a case of mistaken identity) a Brit could interpret this as "Who am I ''supposed'' to be?" If you say, "It was meant to be a RedStapler," an American would think specifically that some higher power intended it to be a red stapler.

* In most dialects of English, collective nouns are generally interpreted as referring to a group's members, so it becomes a plural noun. In American English, though, they are always interpreted as referring to the group itself as a single entity, so it becomes a singular noun. So in Britain, you'd say, "Liverpool are doing better than the owners expected," whereas in the States, you'd say, "Boston ''is'' doing better than the owners expected," but "the Red Sox ''are'' doing better than the owners expected."[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke It's an in-joke]] -- Liverpool FC and the Boston Red Sox are owned by the same entity.[[/note]]
* Time notation is different in the US and UK. In the UK, 10:30 would be called "half ten", whereas in the US it's "half ''past'' ten". And in other European languages, they'd refer to it as "half ''eleven''", even when they're speaking English. However, 10:45 is usually "a quarter to eleven" -- except in some parts of the US, where it's "a quarter ''of'' eleven".
* The US and UK have different ways to parse certain instances of AmbiguousSyntax. For instance, if you said that, "[[AliceAndBob Alice insisted that Bob left]]," is it uncertain whether Bob left and Alice is insisting that he did, or has Bob not left yet and Alice is insisting that he go? Americans would generally accept the former[[note]]for the latter, the more natural American formulation would be, "Alice insisted that Bob ''leave''," using the subjunctive mode[[/note]], Brits the latter.

* The Music/BobMarley song "No Woman, No Cry" is commonly thought to be about the joys of bachelorhood, as in, "No woman, no ''reason to'' cry." But if you understand Jamaican Patois, you'll know he's basically saying "No, woman, ''don't'' cry." And if you actually read the lyrics, the song is about consoling a female companion during a difficult time.

** Refers universally to the drink, but in the UK also refers to a light meal eaten in the afternoon, usually involving tea and also cakes, scones, and biscuits. It may or may not be called "afternoon tea", as some Brits use "tea" for the meal Americans (and many Brits) call "dinner." Either way, if a Brit invites you over for "tea," expect more than just the drink.
** In the US, "tea" is also a slang term for gossip. This originated in the black LGBTQ community as early as the 1980s, originally just "T" as in "truth," and drink references like "spilling T" were puns. From there it spread to the broader queer community where it became "tea." Its use on social media and ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' caused it to spread to the general public.

* ''Torch'': In the UK, what the US would call a ''flashlight''. In the US, it refers exclusively to a flame at the end of a stick, which is ''also'' called a torch in the UK (it's context-dependent there). Interestingly, a number of smartphones -- whether set to British or American English -- will refer to the device's flashlight function as a "torch".
* ''Torrid'': In a sports context, used totally differently. An UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague team that's off to a "torrid start" is at the bottom of the table and in danger of relegation. A UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer team that's off to a "torrid start" is on top of the standings[[note]]"Table" in this context is only used in the US in soccer because of the British influence[[/note]] and likely already booked its playoff spot.[[note]]And we should also point out that there's no playoffs in EPL and no relegation in MLS. Sports are funny.[[/note]]

* ''Wardrobe'': In the UK, a tall external cabinet used for hanging clothes and is a regular part of the bedroom furniture set (and might [[Literature/ChroniclesOfNarnia also be a gateway to a magical land]]). But in the US, one's wardrobe is the clothes themselves, as the term refers to a person's entire collection of clothing, possibly divided by season/occasion like winter wardrobe, school wardrobe, etc. The clothes are hung in a ''closet'', an alcove built into the walls of the home for this purpose (and might also be a metaphorical hiding spot for a queer person keeping their sexuality/gender identity a secret). While British-style wardrobe cabinets are not unheard of in the US, they're rarely a necessity since closets are the norm in American homes.

* What the UK calls a ''by-election'', the US calls a ''special election''. Both terms refer to an off-cycle election to fill an unplanned vacancy in a leadership office, like a political office or a corporate board. And only the British call such a vacancy a ''casual vacancy'' (leading to confused Americans trying to get into Creator/JKRowling's book ''Literature/TheCasualVacancy'' and not understanding what it meant).

* What the US calls ''canned food'', the UK calls ''tinned food''. The proverbial tin that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin describes its products exactly]] would be a "can" in colloquial American English. Oddly, once opened and emptied this vessel becomes a tin can. Meanwhile the term "tin", sans can, is often used in the US for metal containers with lids, such as what mints or fancy Christmas pastries might come in. The US also uses "canning" to refer to preserving food in vacuum-sealed glass jars, which the UK would call "bottling". Bottling in the US exclusively refers to beverages- one would can fruit preserves and bottle liquor using the same process.
* What the US calls a ''liquor store'', the UK calls an ''off-licence'' (or "offie" for short) [[note]] because the alcohol has to be taken off the premises to be consumed [[/note]] and Australia calls a ''bottle shop'' (or "bottle-o" for short). The term "off-license" is also used in the US, but because [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFederalism every state regulates alcohol differently]], it encompasses a dizzying variety of establishments who may or may not be allowed to sell certain kinds of alcohol at certain times. Each state also has its own terms for different kinds of stores (''e.g.'' "ABC Store", often used in the South and referring to "Alcoholic Beverage Control", because those states have a state monopoly on some subset of alcohol sales; or "state store", used in Pennsylvania because, um, that state has a state monopoly on a subset of alcohol sales; or "party store", a specific variety in Michigan for stores that sell both booze and other "party" items like snacks and disposable plates/cups/cutlery). Even the seemingly universal "liquor store" changes meaning subtly across state lines--in Pennsylvania, at a "liquor store" you can buy wine and spirits but not beer,[[note]]Being used interchangeably with "state store"[[/note]] but in New Jersey, a "liquor store" seems to sell mainly or ''only'' beer (this causes significant confusion because these states neighbor each other), and in Southern California it can refer to basically any convenience store whether or not it sells alcohol at all.

* What the US calls the ''mail'', the UK calls the ''post''. And when you send things through that system, in the US they're ''mailed'' and in the UK they're ''posted''. And the guy who delivers them is the ''mailman'' in the US and the ''postman'' in the UK. But the entity in charge of the whole thing is the United States ''Postal'' Service in the US and the Royal ''Mail'' in the UK. What a language! In the US, "posted" usually refers to something stuck on a wall (or a MessageBoard), but the term "postman" is sometimes used (''e.g.'' the novel ''Literature/ThePostman'' and its [[Film/ThePostman film adaptation]][[note]]Perhaps they realized that calling an epic drama ''The Mailman'' would sound rather silly[[/note]]), as is "postmarked" to refer to the date that something was mailed.

** Finally, one that cuts across dialect lines: English-speaking mariners and those who associate with them (e.g. [[SemperFi United States Marines]]) are liable to call a toilet--especially a ship's toilet--a "head", to the frequent confusion of landlubbers.

* What the US and Canada (and Website/ThisVeryWiki) call ''TabletopGame/TicTacToe'', the UK, Australia, and New Zealand calls ''Noughts and Crosses'', and Ireland calls ''X's and O's''.
* What the US calls a ''bus'', the UK may call a "bus" if it's for public transport (like the famous London double-deckers), but a ''coach'' if it's for long distances or tour groups. British pubs used to have signs saying "No football coaches allowed," which confused Americans might interpret as banning their local [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball offensive coordinator]] but which really bans busloads of FootballHooligans.

* Both Brits and Americans will call a large and luxurious private watercraft a ''yacht'', regardless of its propulsion. However, the British/Commonwealth use of “yacht” for recreational sailboats that can be much smaller and humbler, can lead to confusion among Americans, who may joke that “a yacht has a minibar and a jacuzzi”. Terms like “yachting” and “yachtsman/woman” rather than “sailing” and “sailor” are somewhat more common in referring to the sport of sailing in the Commonwealth than the US, where they can be seen as [[WealthyYachtOwner carrying a “snooty” or “stuffy” connotation.]]
* What the US calls ''fair use'', everywhere else except the US calls ''fair dealing''. Both are exceptions to copyright law where it is permissible to re-use copyrighted property even without securing permission or rights to use it. The specifics are slightly different from country to country, though.

* ''Geezer'': In the UK, an informal but otherwise neutral word for a man. In the US, a ruder term specifically for a GrumpyOldMan, generally out of touch and yelling at the kids to get off his lawn. In the UK, it can also be mistaken for the word "geyser", which is pronounced "guy-zer" in the US (leading to references to geysers being mistaken for geezers).[[note]]Both pronunciations are technically wrong; the word comes from the Icelandic ''geysir'', pronounced roughly "gay-seer". "Geezer", meanwhile, comes from the Scottish "guiser", from the children who dress up as ghosts on Samhain, the tradition adopted elsewhere as trick-or-treating.[[/note]]

* ''Gypsy'': In the UK, a slur for the Roma people. In the US, a more generic, neutral term for a carnival fortuneteller who may or may not wear traditional Eastern European garb, completely divorced from the word's origins. Only recently have Americans cottoned on to its status as a slur.

* ''Kiwi'': Used frequently in reference to UsefulNotes/NewZealand, but with some differences within New Zealand and outside it. Around the world, a "kiwi" refers to the weird flightless bird that's the country's national symbol, and also refers generally to anyone or anything from New Zealand. Outside New Zealand, it also refers to the fruit that looks vaguely like the bird; but in New Zealand, the fruit is always called the "kiwifruit" (and since the bird is endangered, you probably shouldn't joke about eating it).[[note]]The fruit is also not native to New Zealand; it was originally called the "Chinese gooseberry" before the marketeers cooked up the new name. The actual national plant of New Zealand is the silver fern, which you'll see bloody everywhere around the country.[[/note]] A New Zealander may also refer to the New Zealand dollar as the "kiwi", something that foreigners might take a while to pick up on.
* ''Knocked up'': In the UK, it used to mean to be woken up, often abruptly -- originally, it meant someone literally knocking at your door to wake you.[[note]]In the days before alarm clocks, you could get a job as a "knocker up", someone who was paid to knock on people's doors and wake them for work.[[/note]] In Australia, at least around UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it meant to be too exhausted to continue. In the US, it means to impregnate, often unplanned and out of wedlock. For the most part, [[HaveAGayOldTime the American usage has taken over everywhere else]].

* ''Native'': Within the United States, this term can have various meanings depending on who you're referring to. "Native American" or just plain "Native" obviously refers to indigenous peoples. But if you were born and raised in a specific state, like Ohio, then you'd be an "Ohio native" regardless of your race. Except Alaska and Hawaii. For various reasons, the indigenous people in those states are considered separate from the Native Americans in the Lower 48, and "Alaska/Hawaii Native" is ''only'' used to refer to those groups and not people who were simply born there. Hawaii has the additional term ''kamaʻāina'' to refer to people from any ethnic origin who were born in Hawaii. But in general, people that are from Alaska or Hawaii without being ethnically indigenous are referred to as Alaska/Hawaii-''born''. Hawaii also uses the term "locals"; depending on the speaker, it can refer to all long-term state residents regardless of their birthplace, or more often as a catch-all collective term for residents who aren't Native Hawaiian, White, or Black (people of Portuguese descent, though White, are very often included).

* ''Overseas'': In the US and Canada, off-continent; in the UK, anywhere outside the country. An American in Canada or Mexico (or perhaps even Brazil) wouldn't consider himself "overseas", whereas a Brit in France or even Ireland (but perhaps not Northern Ireland) would consider herself "overseas".
* ''Paki'': In the US, used very occasionally to refer to a Pakistani, not generally offensive. Sounds similar to other uncommon slang terms (like "packie", New England slang for a liquor store, or "Pachy", short for a ''Pachycephalosaurus'') -- not a big issue. In the UK, it's a very offensive slur for Pakistanis (and sometimes for South Asians in general), particularly associated with hate groups in the 70s and 80s. Americans are only slowly catching on. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, it happens to be the regnal name for the current King of the Māori. See also ''Jap'', a slur going in the opposite direction.
* ''Pasty'': As a noun (sounding like "past", not "paste"), in the UK and Australia is a kind of meat-and-vegetable pie, sometimes called a "Cornish pasty" after the region that made it famous. It's relatively unknown in the States,[[note]]they're only really known in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and environs, where a lot of Cornish miners settled; weirdly, nowadays the pastry is associated there with Finns, who also moved there, outnumbered the Cornish, and adopted the dish[[/note]] where a pasty is the sticker that strippers wear over their nipples to keep them [[NippleAndDimed technically within state decency laws]].

* ''Pie'': In the UK and Australia, generally refers to all sorts of pastries, sweet and savoury. In the US, it refers primarily to a pastry stuffed with fruit, sweetened vegetables, custard, and/or cream-derivatives, often as a dessert. Meat pies are not unheard of in the States but are not what people usually think of; they're often called "pot pies" (except in parts of Pennsylvania, where the term refers to a kind of noodle soup). "Pie" might also be a shorthand for a pizza in some parts of America. Louisiana has the "Natchitoches[[note]]pronounced "nack-a-tish"[[/note]] meat pie", which is known in the Southwest but called an ''empanada''. See also ''pasty'', which is a pie in some parts of the Anglosphere.

* ''Shag'': In the US, it often refers to a type of fuzzy carpet popular in the 60s and 70s, and occasionally a hairstyle reminiscent of the carpet. Along the coast of the Carolinas, it refers to a slow Lindy Hop dance popular since the 40s. In the old days in Britain, it referred to coarse-cut tobacco (''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' occasionally had some). Nowadays in Britain, it's a verb meaning "to have sex". Thankfully, Americans are pretty well aware of this usage thanks to ''Film/AustinPowers''.
* ''Shit'': In all places it has a scatological meaning, but in the US, Canada, and Australia can also be a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f46HRlTIYDM synonym for "stuff"]]. This means that in those places, "shit" is not always negative, depending on the context; if you open a fridge there and comment, "you've got a lot of shit in here," it wouldn't be received poorly. In Britain, on the other hand, it probably would; if you describe random stuff as "shit", it carries the implication that it's not very good. ([[Series/TheArmstrongAndMillerShow Unless you are a World War II RAF pilot who speaks like a 2010s teenager]].) In the US, it's been observed that there's a significant difference between something that's "shit" and something that's "''the'' shit"; the former is bad, the latter is good. In Britain, the term "bollocks" (meaning "testicles" and not "feces") can be used positively (''e.g.'' "the dog's bollocks") the same way "shit" is in the States (where the term "bollocks" is not used at all and seen as very British).

* ''Spinster'': Nowadays the term refers to an unmarried woman, but the ''tone'' of how it's applied varies by region.[[note]]It's derived from medieval women who spun wool, one of the few ways a woman in those times could earn a living without needing a man, hence why the term has come to be associated with single women[[/note]] In most of the Western Anglosphere, it's a derogatory term for an unmarried middle-aged woman along the lines of "old maid." But in Africa and the Caribbean, it's a completely neutral term that's the female version of "bachelor," to the point that "Bachelor" and "Spinster" are listed on marriage certificates.

* ''African'': In most of the world, anyone of African ancestry. In the US and Canada, specifically someone who migrated from Sub-Sahara Africa. North America has significant populations of people descended from slaves brought from Africa to the Americas by colonial powers. In the US they're referred to as "African Americans," while Canada lumps together all people of African descent--whether they've been there for generations or migrated from Africa or the Caribbean--as "Black Canadians." But even then, "African" is still only used for recent immigrants. Their children or grandchildren, on the other hand, are likely to identify as African-American/Black Canadian if they're fully socialized within the country. In all situations, though, it refers specifically to black Africans, not Arabs or whites, so many Egyptians are ''not'' "Africans" by this definition, nor are white South Africans. Anglophone black Africans have a tendency to refer to "the African continent" if they want to be clear that they're referring to the geographic entity.
** Among UK speakers. African mostly refers to the Black community from Sub-Saharan African ethnicities (British Nigerians, Ghanaians, Somalis, etc), whilst South Africans of European descent, North African Arabs and East African Indians in the UK are not typicslly included as African unless used in a cultural way or regionally specified way. British Black Caribbeans whilst aware of their African ancestry do not tend to identify as African. In the UK, it is not uncommon for members of the Black community to ask each other "African? Or Caribbean?" In regards to ethncity
* ''Asian'': In the US, refers most often to East and Southeast Asians (Japan, China, Thailand, the Philippines, etc). In the UK, refers most often to South Asians (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.) and West Asians (Middle Easterners excluding North Africans). This occasionally causes confusion. Both Americans and Brits are aware that "Asian" encompasses all of the above, but Americans will specify "Middle Eastern" for West Asians or "Desi/Indian" for all South Asians and Brits will specify "Far Eastern/East Asian" (or perhaps use the more archaic and out-of-touch term "Oriental" though that term is seen as the same using Middle Eastern or Desi).
* ''Barbecue'': As a verb, everyone uses it to mean "to grill". But as a noun, the UK uses it exclusively to mean the process or the appliance, whereas the US could also use it to refer to the meat it produces or the get-together in someone's backyard where the cooking happens. In the DeepSouth and parts of the Midwest, "barbecue" is distinct from "grilling"; grilling is done on an open flame, while barbecue is done at a lower temperature for several hours (it may or may not include "smoking" as well), leading to a distinct taste that's SeriousBusiness in [[UsefulNotes/CuisinesInAmerica those parts of the country]]. In Britain, ''any'' form of outdoor cooking is a "barbecue", even grilling; a "grill" in the UK is exclusively an indoor appliance, which in the US is known as a ''broiler''. Australians are also famously adept at barbecuing and might call the device a ''barbie'', as in the famous "shrimp on the barbie" line -- except any self-respecting Aussie will tell you that shrimp are too small to be properly barbecued, and you'd better use prawns.[[note]]The Australian tourism ad featuring Creator/PaulHogan that codified the line used "shrimp" because it was made specifically for US broadcast.[[/note]]

* ''Chips'': In the UK, they're what the US would call "French fries" (or just fries). In the US, they're what the UK would call "crisps". The UK and Ireland also use the term "fries", but specifically to refer to the thin-cut style like you'd get at a fast-food restaurant, as opposed to the thick-cut style you'd get at a fish-and-chip shop; in the US, "fries" refers to both styles. Some American places might call thick-cut fries "steak fries" or "potato wedges", but this has a connotation of being needlessly fancy. The only time the Americans use "crisps" is on Pringles packaging, for legal reasons;[[note]]specifically, they're [[LiteCreme not sufficiently made of potato]] -- they only contain 42% actual potato content, with the rest being fried dough[[/note]] most Americans call them "chips" in conversation. Confusingly, in Australia and South Africa, ''both'' varieties, fries and crisps, are called "chips"; Australia also calls fries "hot chips", and South Africa calls them "slap chips" ("slap" being Afrikaans for "soft, floppy").

** In the US, usually used interchangeably with "university". Sometimes a university will be divided into different study programs known as colleges (''e.g.'' "the CaliforniaUniversity College of Tropeology"), but whole institutions that call themselves "colleges" are functionally identical to those that call themselves "universities". But there are distinctions: For instance, a ''community college'' is not considered a university but instead offers two-year associate degrees or technical certifications.[[note]]The stereotype there is someone who was too dumb to get into a "real" university or who's too ''poor'' to afford a "real" university; in reality, many financially borderline students will go to a community college to take as many classes as they can, then transfer those credits to a four-year university and complete their Bachelors degree there.[[/note]] "College" is usually limited to an undergraduate degree and does not describe post-graduate degree programs; for instance, a law student would not describe themselves as "in college" but rather "in law school". The service academies are also not "colleges"; someone at the Military Academy would say they're "at West Point", or in the Naval Academy would say they're "at Annapolis".
** In the UK, "college" refers to ''Sixth Form'' and is what Americans would call the last two years of high school, which may or may not take place at an institution that also offers post-secondary education for adults. "College" is also the term used for the semi-independent establishments that make up the universities of [[UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} Oxford, Cambridge]], and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Durham]]. In Scotland, "college" can refer to particularly old high schools, or to what Americans would call a "community college".

** In the Republic of Ireland, "college" is the vernacular shorthand for all post-secondary education, including post-graduate studies. This usage stems from the unique history of higher education in the Republic, as before 1989 no Irish university could actually directly provide academic instruction and had to relegate that duty to a constituent college.
** In Australia, "college" refers to private high schools, although in some jurisdictions the term is limited to senior high schools. Universities are called "universities", but sometimes their ''residential'' houses are called "colleges". In neither case is "college" really an educational level; an Aussie describing where they went to high school would just say, "I went to school at St. John's College," and an Aussie living at a college at a university would just say, "when I was at Sydney University I lived at St. John's College." (And yes, it's not unheard of for these places to have similar names.) Making matters ''even more confusing'' is how in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory, basically the equivalent of the District of Columbia) uses it to refer to a separate institution for 11th & 12th grade.

* ''Corn'': What people in the US and Canada refer to as "corn" is known in the UK as "maize" (ironically, a Native American word). This is because "corn" by its original English definition is an umbrella term for all cereal grains. But since maize is the most widely-grown grain in North America, the generic "corn" came to refer to that crop in particular. But in the UK, where it's not nearly as widespread, "maize" is preferred for being specific to that one plant. The rest of Western Europe (and a few other languages) have followed suit by calling it come variation of "maize."

* ''Colored''[=/=]''Coloured'': In the US, an outdated (formerly polite, now usually seen as racist) term for all darker-skinned racial minorities, particularly blacks. It's still used in a few archaic contexts (''e.g.'' the NAACP or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). In many other Anglophone countries, it's seen as more "outdated" than "racist". But in South Africa, "Coloured" has a very specific meaning, deriving from UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra, referring to people of mixed race -- they had fewer rights than whites, but more than blacks, and they ended up developing their own ethnic identity which survived Apartheid. The term is neutral in South Africa and can be used fairly casually. For instance, Music/DieAntwoord's song "She Makes Me a Killer" mentions a groupie who "looked just like a Coloured Creator/AngelinaJolie." An American would call the girl "mixed" and might be taken aback by the use of "Coloured" if they're not familiar with South African culture. [[note]]The distinction between "black" and "colored" ''was'' used this way historically in some parts of America; indeed, New Orleans had numerous terms that conveyed how many great-grandparents were white versus black, some of which are occasionally still heard, referring to social events such as the Octaroons Ball.[[/note]]

* ''Fag'': In the UK, a cigarette or cigarette butt. In the US, a nasty slur for a gay person (or really any LGBT person, but particularly gays), to the point that it's now bleeped on television. Both terms are short for ''faggot'' and come from the old definition of "faggot" being a bundle of sticks held together with string (usually spelled "fagot" in the US) -- in the US case, the journey was pretty convoluted but may have derived from [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors depraved practices at British boarding schools]].[[note]]There's a common urban legend that it derived from homosexuals being burned at the stake, but it more likely came from the slang "fagging", which is when an upperclassman forces a younger student to do menial tasks for him.[[/note]] In Britain a "faggot" could also be a type of meatball, although the term is mostly in disuse now. Indeed, many Britons are becoming more aware of American disgust at the term (''e.g.'' Creator/ColinBaker, at a ''Series/DoctorWho'' panel at Comic-Con, referred to a "fag break" but then quickly apologized to the American audience and clarified that he meant "cigarette break").

* ''Fanny'': In the US, slang for "butt", and [[GoshDangItToHeck kind of silly and old-fashioned at that]], similar to "heinie" or "rear" -- the kind of thing that would pass for ToiletHumor in a kid's show. In the UK, it's a much ruder word for female genitalia, similar to "snatch" or "pussy" in the US. The American term ''fanny pack'' is what's known in the UK as a ''bum bag'', evoking the image of the rear rather than the front (but still worn across the front).[[note]]Even more confusingly, there is such a thing as a "butt pack" in American military slang, and that one's worn in the small of the back.[[/note]]

* ''African'': In most of the world, anyone of African descent. In the US and Canada, specifically someone who migrated from Sub-Sahara Africa. North America has significant populations of people descended from slaves brought from Africa to the Americas by colonial powers. In the US they're referred to as "African Americans," while Canada lumps together all people of African descent--whether they've been there for generations or migrated from Africa or the Caribbean--as "Black Canadians." But even then, "African" is still only used for recent immigrants. Their children or grandchildren, on the other hand, are likely to identify as African-American/Black Canadian if they're fully socialized within the country. In all situations, though, it refers specifically to black Africans, not Arabs or whites, so many Egyptians are ''not'' "Africans" by this definition, nor are white South Africans. Anglophone black Africans have a tendency to refer to "the African continent" if they want to be clear that they're referring to the geographic entity.

* ''Barbecue'': As a verb, everyone uses it to mean "to grill". But as a noun, the UK uses it exclusively to mean the process or the appliance, whereas the US could also use it to refer to the meat it produces or the get-together in someone's backyard where the cooking happens. In the DeepSouth and parts of the Midwest, "barbecue" is distinct from "grilling"; grilling is done on an open flame, while barbecue is done at a lower temperature for several hours (it may or may not include "smoking" as well), leading to a distinct taste that's SeriousBusiness in [[UsefulNotes/CuisinesInAmerica those parts of the country]]. In Britain, ''any'' form of outdoor cooking is a "barbecue", even grilling; a "grill" in the UK is exclusively an indoor appliance, which in the US is known as a ''broiler''. Australians are also famously adept at barbecuing and might call the device a ''barbie'', as in the famous "shrimp on the barbie" line -- except any self-respecting Aussie will tell you that shrimp are too small to be properly barbecued, and you'd better use prawns.

* ''Bogan''[=/=]''Bogon'': Usually an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogon_filtering obscure term]] for an address in an unassigned or reserved IP space, in Canada it's a racist slur for Arabs (possibly derived from the French slur ''bougnoul'' or ''bougnole'', specific to North Africans), and in Australia it's [[TheBogan their unique variety]] of what the UK would call a "chav" or the US would call "redneck." This word is not used in the United States except by devoted ''Franchise/StarWars'' fans referring to the Dark Side of the Force.

Differences between the American and British versions of English (abbreviated by scholars as [=AmE=] and [=BrE=]) have been cropping up since the first British colonists began settling the east coast of North America in the early 17th century. The colonists, faced by a "new world" filled with new things that the mother tongue lacked vocabulary words for, began coining their own. The political upheaval and separation caused by UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_relations#Language French influenced British's words]], and the fact that the two countries are separated by several thousand miles of water led to further diversion between the two dialects.

Some academics once believed that British and American English would diverge to the point of incomprehensibility, and later academics theorized that the influence of television and movies might cause the dialects to become identical. Neither has happened, but the differences in vocabulary and slang between the two dialects remain, with new words and slang expressions cropping up even as others become universal on both sides of the Atlantic.

There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, rather than taking "pure, British English" and debasing it, American English has in fact preserved many older features of British English that have been lost in many/most/all modern British dialects.

There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, rather than taking "pure, British English" and debasing it, American English has in fact preserved many older features that once existed in British dialects but were lost or changed in the home country.

It has, among other things, retained the flat "a" in words like "bath" and "grass" (which has been lost in Southern England but survives in Northern and Midlands England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), retained the past participle "gotten" (dates back to Middle English at least), retained the figurative use of "I guess" for "think, suppose" (used by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer), rhotic Rs (which survive in Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry South West England]] but have been lost in the rest of the UK), and some older vocabulary such as "Fall" to describe the season that comes after summer (replaced in British English by the newer "autumn"). American English also uses the subjunctive mood (which dates back at least to Indo European) more often; for instance, the BBC sometimes says “demands it is” (though some Brits would consider this incorrect), whereas an American would always say “demands it be”. Perhaps one of the famous examples, the term "Soccer" as opposed to "Football", also originated in Britain.

Features that survive in most modern British dialects but have been lost in most modern American dialects include the three way distinction between the vowels of "cot", "caught" and "father", many distinctions between vowels preceding the letter "r" (the three-way distinction between words like "marry", "merry" and "Mary"; the distinction between the vowels in "hurry" and "furry", "mirror" and "nearer", "moral" and "oral"), yods (y-sounds before the letter U) in words like "new" and "enthusiasm"[[note]]and often in words like "dune" and "Tuesday" as well, though many British dialects [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonant_clusters#Yod-coalescence coalesce]] them instead[[/note]], and spellings like "colour" and "centre" which were altered in American English by Noah Webster's spelling reforms.

* ''Native'': Within the United States, this term can have various meanings depending on who you're referring to. "Native American" or just plain "Native" obviously refers to indigenous peoples. But if you were born and raised in a specific state, like Ohio, then you'd be an "Ohio native" regardless of your race. Except Alaska and Hawaii. For various reasons, the indigenous people in those states are considered separate from the Native Americans in the Lower 48, and "Alaska/Hawaii Native" is ''only'' used to refer to those groups and not people who were simply born there. Hawaii has the additional term ''kamaʻāina'' to refer to people from any ethnic origin who were born in Hawaii. But in general, people that are from Alaska or Hawaii without being ethnically indigenous are referred to as Alaska/Hawaii-''born''. Hawaii also uses the term "locals"; depending on the speaker, it can refer to all long-term state residents regardless of their birthplace, or more often as a catch-all collective term for residents who aren't Native Hawaiian, White, or Black.

* ''Spunk'': In the US, it refers to a little toughness, fighting spirit, forcefulness or "moxie"; it's commonly used to refer to women who are [[ActionGirl a little tougher than one might expect]], but in a good way, hence the term "YouGotSpunk". In the UK, it refers to sperm or ejaculate. Therefore, in Britain, implying that a woman has "a lot of spunk" would imply that [[DidYouJustHaveSex she's just slept with a large number of men]]. Confusingly, the American sense was also used in Britain as late as the 1930s, and the British sense is now starting to migrate to the States.

* "Durex": in Brazil, Mexico and Australia, duct tape; in the rest of the world, a brand of condom common in North America, the UK, and Europe.

* Someone from South Korea will have a hard time understanding someone from North Korea although both countries ostensibly have the same official language. There are some subtle differences in spelling and North Korea refuses to use foreign loan words so it has to come up with workarounds while South Koreans simply Koreanize the spelling and pronunciation of foreign words the local language doesn't have an equivalent to. Also, due to decades of isolation and little communication between the two countries, many South Koreans find the North Korean accent to be bizarre and nigh-incomprehensible. For a better example of this, there's the case of the Korean spelling of Egypt's capital, Cairo: In the North Korean dialect, it's spelled with the Arabic spelling ''al-Qāhirah'' or its equivalent in the Korean spelling (까히라, ''kkahila''). On the the other hand, in the South Korean dialect, the same city is spelled using the English name (Cairo) as proxy (카이로, ''kailo''). Furthermore, the North Korean dialect is archaic and stilted compared to the more modern South Korean dialect. A good comparison is to the modern American English dialect with FloweryElizabethanEnglish. In fact, all the text translated from the North Korean dialect into English is usually translated in this way by both English-speaking news agencies and the North Korean government itself when they decide to translate their speeches into English.

There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, rather than taking "pure, British English" and debasing it, American English has in fact preserved many older features that once existed in British dialects but were lost or got changed in the home country.

It has, among other things, retained the flat "a" in words like "bath" and "grass" (which has been lost in Southern England but survives in Northern and Midlands England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), retained the past participle "gotten" (dates back to Middle English at least), retained the figurative use of "I guess" for "think, suppose" (used by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer), rhotic Rs (which survive in Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry South West England]] but have been lost in the rest of the UK), and some older vocabulary such as "Fall" to describe the season that comes after summer (replaced in British English by the newer "autumn"). American English also uses the subjunctive mood (which dates back at least to Indo European) more often; for instance, the BBC sometimes says “demands it is” (though some Brits would consider this incorrect), whereas an American would always say “demands it be”.

There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, rather than taking "pure, British English" and debasing it, American English has in fact preserved many older features that once existed in British dialects but were lost or got changed.

There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, American English has in fact preserved many older features that have been lost in many/most British dialects.

* ''Napkin'': In the US, it's what the UK would call a ''serviette''. In the UK, it's what the US would call a ''diaper'' (occasionally shortened to "nappy"). And in Japan, which uses the English loanword, it's what the US and UK would call a ''sanitary napkin'' (more colloquially a "pad"). Ask for a "napkin" in a restaurant, and you might get a strange reply. Canada sometimes uses "napkin" and sometimes "serviette" (in some parts of Canada "napkin" might be interpreted the Japanese way); some places in the US close to the border may understand "serviette", but in other parts of the US it may refer to a ''wet wipe'', often with disinfectant, usually given to customers to clean their hands after eating messy food like buffalo wings.

Features that survive in most modern British dialects but have been lost in most modern American dialects include the three way distinction between the vowels of "cot", "caught" and "father", many distinctions between vowels preceding the letter "r" (the three-way distinction between words like "marry", "merry" and "Mary"; the distinction between the vowels in "hurry" and "furry", "mirror" and "nearer", "moral" and "oral"), yods (y-sounds before the letter U) in words like "new" and "enthusiasm"[[note]]and often in words like "dune" and "Tuesday" as well, though many British dialects coalesce them instead[[/note]], and spellings like "colour" and "centre" which were altered in American English by Noah Webster's spelling reforms.

There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, American English has in fact preserved many older features that have been lost in many/most British dialects. It has, among other things, retained the flat "a" in words like "bath" and "grass" (which has been lost in Southern England but survives in Northern and Midlands England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), retained the past participle "gotten" (dates back to Middle English at least), retained the figurative use of "I guess" for "think, suppose" (used by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer), rhotic Rs (which survive in Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry South West England]] but have been lost in the rest of the UK), and some older vocabulary such as "Fall" to describe the season that comes after summer (replaced in British English by the newer "autumn"). American English also uses the subjunctive mood (which dates back at least to Indo European) more often; for instance, the BBC sometimes says “demands it is” (though some Brits would consider this incorrect), whereas an American would always say “demands it be”.

However, to claim that American English is an older form of British English would be just as false as to claim that modern British English is the ancestor of American English, as American English has also undergone many changes. Features that survive in most modern British dialects but have been lost in most modern American dialects include the three way distinction between the vowels of "cot", "caught" and "father", many distinctions between vowels preceding the letter "r" (the three-way distinction between words like "marry", "merry" and "Mary"; the distinction between the vowels in "hurry" and "furry", "mirror" and "nearer", "moral" and "oral"), yods (y-sounds before the letter U) in words like "new" and "enthusiasm"[[note]]and often in words like "dune" and "Tuesday" as well, though many British dialects coalesce them instead[[/note]], and spellings like "colour" and "centre" which were altered in American English by Noah Webster's spelling reforms.

There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, American English has in fact preserved many older features that have been lost in many/most British dialects. It has, among other things, retained the flat "a" in words like "bath" and "grass" (which has been lost in Southern England but survives in Northern and Midlands England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), retained the past participle "gotten" (dates back to Middle English at least), retained the figurative use of "I guess" for "think, suppose" (used by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer), rhotic Rs (which survive in Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry South West England but have been lost in the rest of the UK), and some older vocabulary such as "Fall" to describe the season that comes after summer (replaced in British English by the newer "autumn"). American English also uses the subjunctive mood (which dates back at least to Indo European) more often; for instance, the BBC sometimes says “demands it is” (though some Brits would consider this incorrect), whereas an American would always say “demands it be”.

In some quarters of Britain – and most of the rest of the Anglosphere, in fact[[labelnote:*]] the exception being Canada, which is (much as they hate to admit it) part of a dialect continuum with the United States[[/labelnote]] – the American dialects are looked upon unfavorably as a decayed version of the language, with American usages derisively called "Americanisms". The first documented observation of the distinction between the two dialects was a sneering comment from 1735 by an English visitor to Savannah, Georgia who referred to the American word "bluff" (meaning a raised riverbank) as [[http://books.google.com/books?id=znFmBZ2D8rEC&pg=PA186&dq=differences+american+and+british+english+bluff&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6p16UdbFIMfuiQKWn4GQBw&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=differences%20american%20and%20british%20english%20bluff&f=false "barbarous"]]. There are, of course, no intrinsic qualities that make any one dialect of a language superior to any other, and in any case, American English is [[http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/change/ruining/ in many ways]] a more conservative, traditionalist dialect than British English. American English has, among other things, retained the flat "a" in words like "bath", retained the past participle "gotten" (dates back to Middle English at least), retained the figurative use of "I guess" for "think, suppose" (used by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer), rhotic rs (they stopped being used in standard British English around the American Revolution, but they still survive in most regional dialects), and retained the word "Fall" to describe the season that comes after summer (that being a usage that dates back to the Anglo-Saxons but was replaced in [=BrE=] by the Latinate "autumn"). American English also uses the subjunctive mood (which dates back at least to Indo European) more often; for instance, the BBC sometimes says “demands it is” (though some Brits would consider this incorrect), whereas an American would always say “demands it be”.

* Afrikaans is well known for the word ''baie'', which is actually from Malay[[note]]Many Malay speakers were brought from the Dutch East Indies as slaves or indentured servants to the Cape Colony, and they left a distinct mark on Afrikaans[[/note]]. It's a general word for "a lot" that can be translated as "very," "many," "much," or similar. While Afrikaans is generally mutually intelligible with its European relatives, ''baie'' does not exist in Dutch or Flemish whatsoever, and most speakers don't know what it means, which can cause comprehension issues given how frequently Afrikaans speakers use it.

* ''Spanner'': A type of tool that in the US would be called a "wrench". Specific types of spanners/wrenches have their own terms, and are sometimes called wrenches in Britain as well (for example, a box-end wrench is called a ring spanner, while a pipe wrench is called a Stillson wrench; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrench#Types The Other Wiki]] has an extensive list of different types and their American and British/Commonwealth names).
* ''Spaz'': In the US it's a rather mild and childish insult for [[TheKlutz a klutz]]. In the UK, it's a highly offensive slur for a disabled person, originally derived from the term "spastic" to refer to muscle spasms (used the same way in the US), which might accompany such disabilities as cerebral palsy. See also ''Retard'', a slur going the opposite direction.