Wikipedia:Idioms

This describes issues about the use of common idioms and spelling variants for various dialects of English. There are many idioms which differ between American English and British English, Canadian English, Australian English, Indian English, etc. A substantial list of idioms and variants helps to explain the extensive differences in usage.

List of common idioms or variants
The following are some of the major differences. The American English term is listed first, and the British English term second. Other dialects mostly follow British English usage.


 * 1) apartment — flat
 * 2) behavior — behaviour
 * 3) (bank) check — cheque
 * 4) color — colour
 * 5) defense — defence
 * 6) elevator — lift
 * 7) favor — favour
 * 8) first floor — ground floor
 * 9) gray — grey
 * 10) honor — honour
 * 11) hood (car) — bonnet
 * 12) in the hospital — in hospital
 * 13) labor — labour
 * 14) liter — litre
 * 15) meter — metre (length), meter (device/monitor)
 * 16) parentheses — (curved) brackets
 * 17) period (punctuation) — full stop
 * 18) realize — realise
 * 19) roommate — flatmate
 * 20) second floor — first floor
 * 21) soccer — football
 * 22) subway — underground/tube
 * 23) trunk — boot
 * 24) underpass — subway
 * 25) windshield — windscreen
 * 26) zee — zed