Plain English

British spellings, old and legal words, and one word that is not a word

Contents

1Refusals
2Scope
3Exceptions
4References

A wiki is read by people who did not write it, so every page uses one English: American, and words a person says out loud.^[1] Each refusal names the page, the line and the word to write instead, so a writer fixes it without looking the spelling up.^[1] The other wording refusals are described on Wording.

Refusals

British spellings

A British spelling is refused with its American word: behaviour for behavior, colour for color, licence for license, labelled for labeled, centre for center, judgement for judgment, grey for gray, towards for toward, analyse for analyze, and every verb spelled -ise where American English spells it -ize, in each of its -s, -d, -ing and -ation forms.^[2]

Every word is listed by name, never matched by its ending.^[2] A rule on -ise would take raise, precise, promise, otherwise, surprise, advise, revise and exercise with it, and each of those is correct English already in use on these pages.^[2]

Old and legal words

A word from the old register, or from the register of contracts, is refused with the plain word that replaces it: whilst for while, amongst for among, shall for will or must, ought for should, thus and hence for so, notwithstanding for even so, albeit for though.^[3] A word that points where a name belongs — thereof, therein, wherein, aforementioned — is refused with the instruction to name the thing.^[3] hereby and herein carry ceremony and no fact, and are deleted.^[3]

A word that is not a word

fellen is refused by name: agents write it, and no dictionary holds it.^[4]

Scope

The check reads the places the empty-word check reads: the title, the subtitle, the intent, every infobox group, label, value and note, and every sentence.^[5] Headings are left out.^[5]

Exceptions

A word inside code is left alone, so a name the software owns, such as chartColours(), is written the way the software spells it.^[6]

References

src/builder/build.py — plain_english_problems(), called from check(), names the field, or the page and line, and gives the word to write instead.
src/builder/build.py — BRITISH maps each refused spelling to its American word, one entry per word; the comment above it gives the reason the list is not a pattern.
src/builder/build.py — OLD_ENGLISH maps each refused word to what a writer puts in its place.
src/builder/build.py — NOT_A_WORD holds fellen, and plain_english_problems() reports a word from it as not a word.
src/builder/build.py — plain_english_problems() reads the places wording_places() gives it, which are the title, subtitle and intent, every infobox group, label, value and note, and every sentence from page_statements(), which blanks headings.
src/builder/build.py — wording_places() removes INLINE_CODE before a field or a sentence is matched, and PLAIN_ENGLISH ignores case.

Categories: Refusals

Last updated 17 September 2026Last audited never323 wordsabout 2 minutes to read6 sources cited0 claims with no source