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Word British English meanings Meanings common to British and American English American English meanings waffle (v.) to speak to no purpose; ramble A type of pancake with a pattern of square dents in it, made in a waffle iron. (v.) to equivocate, waver, speak evasively wagon: railway vehicle for transporting goods (US: freight car)
This is a list of British English words that have different American English spellings, for example, colour (British English) and color (American English). Word pairs are listed with the British English version first, in italics, followed by the American English version: spelt, spelled; Derived words often, but not always, follow their root.
Words with specific British English meanings that have different meanings in American and/or additional meanings common to both languages (e.g. pants, cot) are to be found at List of words having different meanings in American and British English. When such words are herein used or referenced, they are marked with the flag [DM] (different meaning).
These are 1100 of the most common words in American English in order of usage. This can be a particularly useful list when starting to learn a new language and will help prioritise creating sentences using the words in other languages to ensure that you develop your core quickly.
In Britain, the variants "have a fine day" and "have a good day" are frequently used in place of "have a nice day". [3] British customers generally consider it to be obnoxious and overbearing, [40] instead usually preferring the gentler expression "enjoy the rest of your afternoon". [42]
Generally, words coming from French often retain a higher register than words of Old English origin, and they are considered by some to be more posh, elaborate, sophisticated, or pretentious. However, there are exceptions: weep, groom and stone (from Old English) occupy a slightly higher register than cry, brush and rock (from French).
Some lists of common words distinguish between word forms, while others rank all forms of a word as a single lexeme (the form of the word as it would appear in a dictionary). For example, the lexeme be (as in to be ) comprises all its conjugations ( is , was , am , are , were , etc.), and contractions of those conjugations. [ 5 ]
The word "genie" has been anglicized via Latin from jinn or djinn from Arabic: الجن, al-jinn originally meaning demon or spirit. Some changes are motivated by the desire to preserve the pronunciation of the word in the original language, such as the word "schtum", which is phonetic spelling for the German word stumm, meaning silent. [3]