Is it 'Centre' or 'Center'?

Answer 1

english - centre
american - center

Answer 2

It's centre of course. However the Americans under the guidance of a guy named Benjamin Franklin spell it center. They spell many words different from proper English, so much so that 'American English' is now an accepted variation of the language. Franklin, after the American War of Independence, realised that most 'Americans' spoke only English so persuaded the new government to invent changes to show their Americanism so words were altered as if to be a different language,. Colour became color and, as you said, centre became center and so on. Funny thing is that despite Franklin's efforts Americans still speak English albeit a bastardised form.

Answer 3

It's easy when you know how : -

CENTRE - UK English spelling, from French [Norman poss].

CENTER - US English spelling, from Webster's Dictionary.

Why the difference? Well, following the Revolution, Mister Webster decided that spellings in English as used in UK were, lets say just crap. So, he decided to go through all those silly and difficult to spell words and came up with a collection of new all AMERICAN spellings which survive today in such as : -

COLOUR - UK
COLOR - US

etc.

It just gets worse with the passage of time and not only that, there is this Bermuda Trinagle thing somewhere in mid-Atlantic into which Americanism go and come out the other side meaning quite the opposite to their original. Same thing with Englishisms, only in reverse.

Confused? Don't be. Because no matter what, the words are all English.

English is an entirely democratic language and belongs to the English speaking people of the world; the Brits, the Americans, the Canadians, Austalians and New Zealanders - and not forgetting anyone else who wishes to use it for what ever purpose, such as in India and Pakistan etc.

New words, slang, are created on the streets. When these slang words become popular here in UK and are in use for about ten years, they get shovelled into the OED and join that happy mob of 600,000 other words we've got stashed in there, which we hardly know and only use about 6,000 in our personal vocabulary, unless you happen to be a lawyer, in which case you've got 6,001 words - just to show off.

Edit: Hugo Fitch above is bonkers, right? Here in UK most Brits take a very relaxed attitude to spellings. The word centre is quite often seen as CENTER - there's one not far from where I live called "The Pumb Center" - they sell pipes and such.

The oldest spelling I know for CENTRE is CENTRUM - think that's how the Dutch spell it and it probably pre-dates the French or Frog version by several centuries [senturies].
sri - spell chckr bust...!!

Answer 4

Centre is the correct English spelling, I understand that Americans spell it as center and so I I suppose it all depends on where you live.

Answer 5

Centre in the UK, Center in the US.

Answer 6

We uncivilized Americans were taught to spell it center in school; but were also taught that it is spelled centre by the real English! Akin to theater (American version) and theatre (English version). It's like most Americanized language bastardized from other languages! You'll find many other instances like it. I don't know about other languages, but American English seems to have too many different meanings for the same word. I've been told it makes American English a difficult language to learn. We are just so boorish!

Answer 7

'Centre' is the spelling used throughout the world as it is from French and adopted by English centuries ago.

'Center' is just a local variation invented in the United States and nowhere else, caused by the government imposition of the Webster Dictionary on the hapless population, so it's probably not even universal in that country (just like whisky/whiskey).

People outside the U.S. who use this spelling are just affected and pretentious.

Answer 8

americans use center but us english use centre

Answer 9

It depends on if you are in England or America.

In America it is Center. In England it is Centre.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives both spellings but highlights the American spelling and gives precedence to the English spelling. So neither is wrong per-se, they are just interchangeable depending on which side of the Atlantic you happen to be at the time of writing.

Answer 10

'Centre' is the correct spelling. The Americans, as they have with many words, have corrupted it to 'Center'.

Answer 11

both are right. I spell it centre. The British spell it Center