Which of these spellings are correct...?

Question

Realise or Realize

Skeptically or Sceptically

Apologise or Apologize

Please could you tell me which ones are correct, as I'm writing something and online dictionaries have all of these words listed.

Thanks!

Answer 1

It depends on the country you are in.

Realize/Skeptically/Apologize is the correct spelling in the USA whereas Realise/Sceptically/Apologise is correct in the UK and Australia

Answer 2

Realize, Skeptically and Apologize are the American English spellings.

Sceptically, Apologise and Realise are British English Spellings. That's how I'd spell them.

Answer 3

American Version

Realize              

Skeptically

Apologize  

While others are English Version

Answer 4

All of those answers which describe the alternative spellings as US or UK are wrong.

The choice of whether to use -ise or -ize endings depends, etymologically, on whether the root of the word in question is Greek or Latin (-izein or -izare), or comes to English via French, where -ise is the norm. Since for the most part the ending is pronounced -ize, then it can be argued that -ize should be used for all such endings. However, there are some words ending in -ise whose roots are decidedly not Greek or Latin, like "devise" and "advertise", and etymologists get terribly upset if you mistreat such words.

Strictly, skeptical is spelled with a "k", since the word is Greek, not Latin, and Greek does not have a letter "c".

Answer 5

realize and apologize are the american ways of spelling them? The ones with the 'S' are the english way as far as i know. Why not check a colins dictionary or something?  

Answer 6

Realise.

Sceptically.

Apologise.

Answer 7

As the others have said:

Sceptically and -ise tends to be used in the UK and Australian, whereas skeptically and -ize tends to be used in the Americas.

If you're writing something academic, it's most important to be consistent.  I would also advise to use the spellings relevant for the country you're in; however, if it's for someone to mark, people often have their own preferences and it might be a good idea to check what kind of spelling conventions your marker uses (for example, by reading if they have had anything published).

Also, it's "which of these spellings IS correct" rather than "are".

Hope that's helpful, good luck with whatever you're writing!

Answer 8

Realize

Skeptically

Apologize

Answer 9

Answer 1 for English English answer 2 for American English, I'd go for

Realise, Sceptically and Apologise ;)

Answer 10

realize

skeptically

apologize

Answer 11

It entirely depends on which country you are in. They are all correct but the USA uses ize where most other English speaking countrues use ise, and the usa uses Skeptical whereas the others use sceptical.

Both are correct in any English speaking country. People may tell you otherwise but they don't know what they are talking about. Both THe Oxford English and Webster's dictionarys list both spellings.

Answer 12

*** Also, it's "which of these spellings IS correct" rather than "are". ***

Not it's not, because the questioner is asking about multiple words: which of them ARE the correct spellings?

For each pair, you could ask "which IS correct?" but for the whole bunch of words, "which ones ARE correct?".

Answer 13

Realise, Sceptically and apologise