“She practises the piano every morning.” An American teacher marks it wrong; a British teacher marks it right. Both teachers are correct — about their own variety of English. Practice vs practise is one of the cleanest examples of a spelling split that isn’t about right and wrong at all, but about which side of the Atlantic you’re writing on. The rule takes one sentence to learn and saves a lifetime of red ink.
Practice vs Practise: The Short Answer
In British English (and many other international varieties), “practice” is the noun and “practise” is the verb; in American English, “practice” is used for both noun and verb, and “practise” is not normally used. Dictionary.com’s usage note states it exactly: “In British English… the spelling practise is used when the word is a verb, while the spelling practice is used when it’s a noun. In American English, the spelling practice is always used, regardless of whether the word is used as a verb or a noun.” Collins COBUILD corroborates: “In American English, the spelling ‘practise’ is not normally used. The verb and noun are both spelled practice.”
What Do “Practice” and “Practise” Mean?
The meanings are identical — only the spelling and the noun/verb job change. Practice (noun): “repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency” — “Practice makes perfect” — and “the exercise or pursuit of a profession,” as in “to practice law” or “a medical practice.” Practise (verb, British): to perform repeatedly to gain skill — “she practises the violin” — the action itself.
Run the British test on real sentences:
- “Football ___ starts at six.” → Noun (the session) → practice.
- “They ___ set pieces every Thursday.” → Verb (the action) → practise (UK) / practice (US).
- “She opened her own ___ in Leeds.” → Noun (the business) → practice.
- “He ___es law in Chicago.” → Verb → practice (US spelling; a “practise” here would be marked wrong).
The American rule is simpler: stop thinking about it. Verb or noun, it’s “practice” — “she practices the piano,” “piano practice.” One spelling does both jobs.
This is a different kind of puzzle from the sound-alike pairs like bare vs bear — there the words sound the same and mean different things; here one word wears two spellings depending on your postcode. For the noun/verb spelling family in general, advice or advise is the closest relative — and the mnemonic Dictionary.com itself offers.
The Core Rule (and Whose Rule It Is)
The honest framing matters here: this is a regional convention, not a universal law. Teach it as “British publishers do X; American publishers do Y,” not as “the rule is X.” Dictionary.com is explicit that the split belongs to “British English (and many other international varieties)” — that parenthetical covers Canada, Australia, India, and much of the Commonwealth, where the noun/verb split is standard in edited writing.
The practical consequence is about audience, not correctness. Writing for a British exam, a UK university, or a Commonwealth publication? Use the split: practice (noun), practise (verb). Writing for an American audience, an American exam, or international business? Use “practice” for everything. Mixing them — “practise” as a noun in London, or “practise” as a verb in New York — is what gets marked wrong. The error isn’t the spelling; it’s the spelling in the wrong place.
A useful parallel from the same reference shelf: each or every is another pair where the “rule” most learners were taught turns out to be a convention with real exceptions — the pattern of this whole series.
The Memory Trick
Dictionary.com hands you the mnemonic itself: it’s “somewhat similar to the difference in spelling between advice (noun) and advise (verb).” Advice/advise works the same way in both varieties — noun with a “c,” verb with an “s.” So in British English, practice/practise follows the identical pattern: noun with “c” (practice), verb with “s” (practise). Learn one pair, get the other free.
The catch Dictionary.com flags: “unlike advice and advise, practise and practice are always pronounced the same.” Advice (ad-VICE) and advise (ad-VIZE) sound different; practice and practise are both “PRAK-tiss.” So the spelling split is purely visual — you can’t hear it, which is why writers have to learn it deliberately rather than picking it up by ear.
For Americans, the mnemonic is even shorter: there is no “practise” in American English. If your spellchecker flags “practised,” it’s not broken — it’s enforcing the American convention. (One exception worth knowing: a few fixed American proper names preserve the “s,” like the Practising Law Institute — institutional fossils, not a license to generalize.)
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Using “practise” as a noun (British). “Her piano practise went well” is wrong in British English — the noun is “practice.” The “s” spelling is verb-only in the UK system.
Using “practise” at all (American). “She practises daily” will be marked wrong in American English, where the verb is “practice.” This is the single most common error American learners make after encountering the British form online — the internet mixes varieties freely, and spellcheckers set to US English will flag every “practise.”
Assuming the split applies to pronunciation. It doesn’t. Both spellings are pronounced identically (“PRAK-tiss”). Anyone “correcting” someone’s pronunciation based on the spelling is inventing a distinction that doesn’t exist.
Over-applying the pattern. The noun-with-c/verb-with-s pattern holds for practice/practise and advice/advise, but English is not consistent: “license/licence” follows it in British English, while pairs like “affect/effect” play by entirely different rules. Learn the pattern as a tendency with named members, not as a law of spelling.
Tricky Cases and Edge Notes
“Practising Law Institute.” The New York-based legal education provider spells it with an “s” — a fixed proper name that predates or ignores the American convention. Proper names don’t have to follow the rules; don’t cite them as evidence that “practise” is acceptable American spelling.
Canadian and Australian English. Both generally follow the British split (practice noun / practise verb) in edited writing, though American influence means you’ll see “practice” as a verb in informal Canadian writing. When in doubt for these varieties, the British split is the safer, more standard choice.
“Practice” as a verb in British headlines. You’ll occasionally see “practice” used as a verb in British publications — usually American influence or house style drifting. It’s not standard British usage, but it’s not the catastrophe some commentators claim; language varieties leak into each other constantly.
The -ing and -ed forms. British: practising, practised. American: practicing, practiced. The participle follows the base spelling of your variety — don’t mix “practicing” (US) with “practise” (UK) in the same document.
Frequently Asked Questions
In British English, “practice” is the noun (the session, the profession: “football practice,” “a medical practice”) and “practise” is the verb (the action: “she practises the violin”). In American English, “practice” is used for both, and “practise” is not normally used.
No — not as a general spelling. Collins COBUILD states: “In American English, the spelling ‘practise’ is not normally used. The verb and noun are both spelled practice.” An American spellchecker flagging “practise” is enforcing the standard convention.
No. Dictionary.com notes that “unlike advice and advise, practise and practice are always pronounced the same” — both are “PRAK-tiss.” The distinction is purely visual, which is why it has to be learned deliberately.
“Practice makes perfect” — in every variety. The proverb uses the noun (the thing that makes perfect is practice, the repeated exercise), and the noun is spelled “practice” in both British and American English.
Dictionary.com’s own: it’s like advice (noun) vs advise (verb) — noun with “c,” verb with “s.” In British English, practice (noun) / practise (verb) follows the identical pattern. Americans can skip the mnemonic entirely: it’s always “practice.”
The UK, Canada, Australia, India, and most Commonwealth varieties use the practice/practise noun-verb split in standard edited writing. The United States uses “practice” for both. International English is mixed — match the spelling to your audience.
