Part 1: English Words With Different Meanings in the U.S. and U.K.

This is Part 1 of Several blogs about Words with different meanings in the U.S. versus U.K. Recently, Dictionary dot com posted a great blog about the differences in meanings of English words spoken by Americans and Canadians that aren’t commonly used anywhere else. These words are either rarely used in the UK, and British dictionaries may not even acknowledge their existence—or identify them as words only Americans and Canadians say. Today's blog will look at 7 of them, from Bachelorette Party to Craps. Read on!

bachelorette party

In the UK, the word bachelorette (a combination of the word bachelor and the feminine noun suffix -ette) for an unmarried young woman is less commonly used than it is in the US and Canada. So, a bachelorette party in the UK is instead referred to as a hen party, hen night, or hen do. Interestingly, unmarried UK men must also be party animals because the term stag party is more commonly used there than bachelor party.

checkers

The American and Canadian name for the game of checkers seems to be based on the checkerboard surface the game is played on. In the UK, the game is instead known as draughts after a pluralization of the word draught that was once used to refer to a move in chess.

cleats

Americans refer to shoes with rubber or metal projections underneath them as cleats while Brits prefer the term studs. Both terms are pluralizations of words that refer to a single projection attached to the shoe, cleat and stud.

cooties

In America, young boys and girls know to keep their distance from one another or risk getting cooties. In the UK, not so much. This name for a fictional disease seems to be based on the word cootie to refer to a body louse, which originates from the Malay word kutu.

cookout

The word cookout is an Americanism formed from the verb phrase cook out. In the UK, the word barbecue (also an Americanism) is more commonly used to refer to parties where food is cooked outside.

cotton candy

A mass of fluffy sugar on a stick is called cotton candy in the US and candyfloss in the UK. Both names likely reference the shape and texture of the candy.

craps

The name of the dice game known as craps is an Americanism that is believed to come from a variant of the word crabs, which referred to a bad roll in another dice game known as hazard. The slang word crapshoot comes from the name of a game of craps, so it too is rarely used in the UK.