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up vote 4 down vote favorite

Excuse my stupid question, but do "favorite" and "favourite" mean the same thing?

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3 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

They have the same meaning, but favourite is used in British English, Australian English, New Zealand English and Canadian English whereas favorite is used in American English.

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up vote 5 down vote

It's not a stupid question. No single person knows everything.

The "ou" is a common British spelling, whereas in American English, we simply use the "o." For example:

  • favourite vs. favorite
  • colour vs. color
  • labour vs. labor
  • honour vs. honor

..and so on.

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1  
+1. For further reading, see American and British English spelling differences on Wikipedia. – Jonik Nov 22 '10 at 21:27
if colour and color are the same then, why is it so, that when we are designing a webpage on NotePad, the web browser (could be any) does not accept 'bgcolour'? – Logophile Feb 12 '11 at 12:31
1  
Because Tim Berners Lee wanted to separate content from form? – RedGrittyBrick Feb 13 '11 at 0:54
up vote 0 down vote

Yes, they mean the same thing. From Wiktionary's entry on favorite:

English

Alternative forms

  • (Commonwealth English) favourite
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