Cancelled vs. Canceled: British (UK) Examples
(i) Since Nora’s pyjama party was cancelled, let’s line up for some sushi and drinks at the restaurant.
(ii) The BTS never cancelled a gig, even when they didn’t get a nice cup of coffee beforehand.
(iii) Now, without any warning whatsoever, your new favourite web series, is cancelled.
(iv) At the end of one of its most difficult weeks of the year, Air India cancelled 45 flights to and from Swindon on Friday, the vast majority at Heathrow Terminal 4.
(v) Placidly, the last one caused a severe backlash, with left-wing pundits claiming that “childhood is cancelled” after the estate of Dr Johns quietly removed five lesser-read books which, in their opinion, were “hurtful and wrong” racial stereotypes, first published in 1957.
Canceled or Cancelled – Which One is Correct?
“American and British English have many similar habits when it comes to past and present participles: both double the final consonant of a word when it follows a short vowel and has the stress on the syllable attached to the suffix (such as remit/remitted/remitting). However, if the stress does not come on the syllable that attaches to the suffix then the final consonant is not doubled (as is the case with edit/edited/editing).” – Lynne Murphy
Canceled or cancelled is the past tense of the verb ‘cancel.’ Both spellings are right. It’s just that Americans prefer ‘canceled‘ or ‘canceling,’ whereas ‘cancelled‘ or ‘cancelling‘ is used in British English and other dialects. However, the word ‘cancelation’ is rarely used and is technically correct, while ‘cancellation’ is by far the most widely-used spelling.
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