Difference Between Practice and Practise

‘Practice’ and ‘practise’ are both different spellings of the same word. They are pronounced the same and have the same meaning. However, they are used differently depending on the form of English.

‘Practice’, in all forms of English, is a noun. It has several meanings. The most common in everyday use is usually repeating a skill in order to learn it or to maintain it.

“We practiced playing the piano until we could perform the piece perfectly.”

It can also mean an organized event that will allow people to train their skills.

“After a few problems with a particular move, they decided to work on it at practice.”

Some professions are also known as practices.

“She had been in the medical practice for two years.”

This also applies to some places that provide professions, such as in the phrase ‘running a medical practice’.

Finally, it can also mean a habit or routine.

“It is a good practice to make sure nothing is behind the car before you try to back it up.”

In the United States, ‘practice’ is also the verb form of the word. However, ‘practise’ is the Commonwealth or Irish spelling of the verb form, so it is used almost everywhere but the United States. The verb basically means to perform an action related to a practice. It can mean to repeat a skill in order to learn or maintain it.

“He practised playing the piano every day until he could play the piece perfectly.”

It can mean taking part in an occupation.

“She has practised medicine for two years.”

Finally, it means to habitually do something.

“He practised the fine art of smoking cigarettes.”

Here, the differences boil down to the fact that one is a noun and one is a verb, as well as the difference between United States English and the English spoken by the rest of the world. The United States has different spellings for a lot of words. One of the most obvious is that some words in other forms of English, like colour, honour, and favour, are missing the U in American English.

Many of the differences in American spelling can be attributed to Noah Webster, who wrote the United States’ first dictionary. He decided to create a reference guide for all Americans to follow so that the country could have a single way of doing things to follow. Webster advocated simple spellings that accurately reflected the pronunciation of the word, so while deciding on how to homogenize the language, he looked for the simplest spellings and chose those. He did not invent any of the spellings. For example, ‘color’ had been used infrequently since the 14^th century.

Because of the fact that the first dictionary was written by a spelling reformist, many altered spellings became commonly used in the United States. ‘Practise’ was dropped, probably because of the fact that it was pronounced exactly the same as ‘practice’.

There is a similar pair of words with the same variation in spelling: ‘advice’ and ‘advise’. ‘Advice’ is the noun form, while ‘advise’ is the verb form. However, this still holds true in the United States. Unlike ‘practice’ and ‘practise’, ‘advice’ and ‘advise’ are pronounced differently. This is probably why the spelling of ‘advise’ was kept in the US while the spelling of ‘practise’ was not. Because the spelling reflects a different pronunciation, it makes sense to spell them differently. That is most likely the reason for why ‘advise’ was kept while ‘practise’ was not.s

To summarize, ‘practice’ is a noun that means something done over a long period of time, as well as a kind of profession. ‘Practise’ is the noun form of the word, which means doing those things. ‘Practise’ is not used in the United States; ‘practice’ is the verb form there.

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