Is the proper spelling “judgment” or “judgement”?





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I always thought the proper spelling was  judgment, but I see  judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc. Merriam-Webster lists  judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.



But is the proper spelling  judgment? I feel like I’m in the minority on this.










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  • 1




    It doesn’t matter which one you use; just pick whichever you feel like and stick to that within any given document.
    – tchrist
    Feb 5 '12 at 15:03






  • 3




    But get over your horror of the other spelling.
    – GEdgar
    Dec 17 '12 at 21:59






  • 2




    Yes, the proper spelling is "judgment" or "judgement".
    – Hot Licks
    Feb 21 '17 at 21:47

















up vote
17
down vote

favorite
6












I always thought the proper spelling was  judgment, but I see  judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc. Merriam-Webster lists  judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.



But is the proper spelling  judgment? I feel like I’m in the minority on this.










share|improve this question




















  • 1




    It doesn’t matter which one you use; just pick whichever you feel like and stick to that within any given document.
    – tchrist
    Feb 5 '12 at 15:03






  • 3




    But get over your horror of the other spelling.
    – GEdgar
    Dec 17 '12 at 21:59






  • 2




    Yes, the proper spelling is "judgment" or "judgement".
    – Hot Licks
    Feb 21 '17 at 21:47













up vote
17
down vote

favorite
6









up vote
17
down vote

favorite
6






6





I always thought the proper spelling was  judgment, but I see  judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc. Merriam-Webster lists  judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.



But is the proper spelling  judgment? I feel like I’m in the minority on this.










share|improve this question















I always thought the proper spelling was  judgment, but I see  judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc. Merriam-Webster lists  judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.



But is the proper spelling  judgment? I feel like I’m in the minority on this.







orthography pronunciation-vs-spelling transatlantic-differences silent-letters






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edited Feb 21 '17 at 19:01









sumelic

45.4k8108210




45.4k8108210










asked Aug 22 '10 at 1:40









David Hoerster

243268




243268








  • 1




    It doesn’t matter which one you use; just pick whichever you feel like and stick to that within any given document.
    – tchrist
    Feb 5 '12 at 15:03






  • 3




    But get over your horror of the other spelling.
    – GEdgar
    Dec 17 '12 at 21:59






  • 2




    Yes, the proper spelling is "judgment" or "judgement".
    – Hot Licks
    Feb 21 '17 at 21:47














  • 1




    It doesn’t matter which one you use; just pick whichever you feel like and stick to that within any given document.
    – tchrist
    Feb 5 '12 at 15:03






  • 3




    But get over your horror of the other spelling.
    – GEdgar
    Dec 17 '12 at 21:59






  • 2




    Yes, the proper spelling is "judgment" or "judgement".
    – Hot Licks
    Feb 21 '17 at 21:47








1




1




It doesn’t matter which one you use; just pick whichever you feel like and stick to that within any given document.
– tchrist
Feb 5 '12 at 15:03




It doesn’t matter which one you use; just pick whichever you feel like and stick to that within any given document.
– tchrist
Feb 5 '12 at 15:03




3




3




But get over your horror of the other spelling.
– GEdgar
Dec 17 '12 at 21:59




But get over your horror of the other spelling.
– GEdgar
Dec 17 '12 at 21:59




2




2




Yes, the proper spelling is "judgment" or "judgement".
– Hot Licks
Feb 21 '17 at 21:47




Yes, the proper spelling is "judgment" or "judgement".
– Hot Licks
Feb 21 '17 at 21:47










5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
25
down vote



accepted










I looked in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and the British National Corpus (BNC), and found this data:



COCA:



1        JUDGMENT   15116
2 JUDGEMENT 584


Ratio in American usage: 25 to 1 in favor of judgment



BNC:



1        JUDGMENT   3220
2 JUDGEMENT 2441


Ratio in British usage: 1.3 to 1 in favor of judgment



So, it does appear that while judgment is more common in both British and American English, judgement enjoys a substantial percentage of usage in British English, but much less in American English.



Addendum: per ShreevatsaR’s suggestion, I searched the BNC again, this time excluding all the spoken sections (“S_*”) as well as the two written legal sections: “W_nonac_law”, “W_ac_law_edu”, and got these results



1        JUDGEMENT  2053
2 JUDGMENT 1317


We do now find the numbers inverted: the ratio of judgment to judgement is just 0.64. Although many of the examples remaining of judgment are in fact in a legal context anyway, we do find, though, that the spelling judgment nevertheless enjoys considerable usage in non-legal contexts. Here are a few examples:




  • “Efficiency at work is decreased and judgment impaired, with possible serious results.”

  • “There I had him as a charming, affectionate colleague of mature judgment.”

  • “It is not pleasant for a human being to pass judgment on another and say that he is evil through and through without any redeeming features”

  • Judgment of humorous writing is even more subjective than with any other kind.”






share|improve this answer



















  • 2




    You'd get a much different distribution in British usage if you excluded legal contexts (e.g. whatever W_ac_polit_law_edu is). How does one check this?
    – ShreevatsaR
    Aug 26 '10 at 2:19










  • Thanks for modifying and searching again, BTW. I'd already upvoted this so I can't upvote again. :-) [It seems that with the British corpus, if you leave out newspapers and academic works (or at least social science works), you get a even more skewed distribution in favour of "judgement". The use of American spellings seems common in academic works: e.g. in India, British spellings are generally used but scientific publications tend to use American spellings.]
    – ShreevatsaR
    Aug 29 '10 at 7:29










  • I have of late noticed that the Economist uses the judgment spelling in its own writing, but does not respell judgement if it comes in that way in letters — and that the longer spelling seems to be more common in those.
    – tchrist
    Dec 17 '12 at 23:39












  • Google Trends is always fun to look at in these situations.
    – theblang
    Sep 16 '13 at 15:05










  • The British seem to have forgotten how to spell both judgment and acknowledgment during the 20th century. See Ngram.
    – Peter Shor
    Jan 19 '14 at 17:56


















up vote
11
down vote













Both the spellings are correct; which one is used depends on the context, and the English dialect.



As reported by the New Oxford American Dictionary:




In British English, the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and standard in North American English.







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  • 2




    Interesting that in British legal contexts they use "judgment".
    – Kosmonaut
    Aug 22 '10 at 2:59






  • 3




    @Kosmonaut: that's to avoid ambiguity, when you say that the judge's judgment showed good judgement.
    – TimLymington
    May 14 '11 at 23:02






  • 2




    @TimLymington: I'm not sure that logic really holds up. How many words exist with both an everyday meaning and a legal meaning? A huge amount: case, action, answer, appeal, recess, discovery, etc., just to name a few. There is no problem with spelling these words the same in both contexts. Furthermore, the word judgment is spelled the same in the US in all contexts, and there is no ambiguity problem.
    – Kosmonaut
    May 15 '11 at 0:47






  • 1




    @Kosmonaut: I didn't say it was flawless, or even logical. I just said that's the reason in the British legal system.
    – TimLymington
    May 28 '11 at 16:14






  • 3




    @TimLymington: But I don't think there is historical evidence for that.
    – Kosmonaut
    May 29 '11 at 20:23


















up vote
4
down vote













Current preferences



To judge from the Ngram chart for judgement (blue line) versus judgment (red line) for the period 1675–2008, judgment has been the more common spelling for more than 300 years:





The preference exists (although with a steadily narrowing gap between 1875 and 1990) for sources that Google Books classifies as "British English":





and for sources that Google Books classifies as "American English":





So it would be inaccurate to assert that judgement is the standard British English spelling, although that spelling clearly is much more common in British English than in American English.





Background of the British preference



It bears noting that Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1756) lists only the spelling judgment:




JUDGMENT. s. {jugement, French} 1. The power of discerning the relations between one term or one proposition and another. Locke. 2. Doom; the right or power of passing judgment. Shakespeare. 3. The act of exercising judicature. Addison. 4. Determination; decision. Burnet. 5. The quality of distinguishing propriety and impropriety. Dennis. 6. Opinion ; notion. Shakespeare. 7. Sentence against a criminal. Milton. 8. Condemnation. Tillotson. 9. Punishment inflicted by providence. Addison. 10. Distribution of Justice. Arbuthnot. 11. Judiciary laws; statutes. Deut[e]r[onomy]. 12. The last doom. Shakespeare.




Evidently, Johnson considered that the spelling judgment applied to all of these meaning, with no splitting between legal senses of the word and senses involving personal qualities of insight or discrimination.



The third edition (1867), the fifth edition (1773), and the tenth edition (1792) of Johnson's Dictionary retain the same entry and the same spelling.



The change in British preferences appears to have been prompted by the Rev. J. H. Todd's revision of Johnson's Dictionary (1827), which retains Johnson's definitions but changes the spelling to judgement.



Joseph Worcester, A Dictionary of the English Language, volume 1 (1860), page 794, has this interesting note on the orthography of the word:




The following words, abridgment, acknowledgment, and judgment, are to be found, with the orthography here given, in the English dictionaries which preceded the publication of Mr. Todd's improved editions of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. Todd altered Johnson's orthography of these words by the insertion of an e, thus, abridgement, acknowledgement, judgement; and he remarks, "Several authors have revived this orthography, retaining the e to soften, as Lowth observes on judgement, the preceding g, and as Johnson himself analogically writes lodgement."



The English dictionaries of Jameson and Smart, which have appeared since the publication of Todd's edition of Johnson, also retain the e; and Smart remarks, in relation to the three words in question, that "Todd restores the e in order that they may not exhibit the otherwise unexampled irregularity of g soft before a consonant;" and he "adopts the more correct, however less usual, spelling;" and in his Grammar he says, "It is certainly better to write judgement, abridgement, acknowledgement, &c., than judgment, &c., since, by the general laws of pronunciation, g is hard in terminating a syllable." Many respectable writers now insert the e in these words. The omission of it, however, has been hitherto, and continues to be, the prevailing usage; but it is perhaps not very improbable that the more consistent orthography may yet be generally adopted.






Background of the American preference



Meanwhile, the U.S. spelling preference went in the opposite direction. Noah Webster's first dictionary, (1806) has this entry for judgement:




Judgement, n., a sentence, decision, opinion, skill




Webster doesn't present a rationale for this break with Johnson's orthography, and his spelling here is inconsistent with his treatment in the same dictionary of acknowledgment and abridgment.



But in his voluminous An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster (again without explanation) reverses his judgement to judgment:




JUDGMENT, n., {Fr. jugement} [1.] The act of judging ; the act or process of the mind in comparing its ideas, to find their agreement or disagreement, and to ascertain truth ; or the process of examining facts and arguments, to ascertain propriety and justice; or the process of examining the the relations between one proposition and another. Locke. Encyc. Johnson. ...




... and so on through seventeen more definitions, many of them extracted from senses of the word that Webster finds in Biblical quotations.



Although Webster doesn't explain the flip-flop, he appears elsewhere to be quite critical of what might be termed the superfluous silent e (as in axe, ermine, iodine, jasmine, and medicine, all of which words Webster at one time or another rendered without the final e). The real surprise is that he broke with Johnson's spelling of judgment back in 1806.





Conclusion



Insofar as British English may be said to favor judgement and American English judgment, responsibility for those preferences seems to rest with the prescriptive orthographical choices of J. H. Todd and Noah Webster.



The judgment/judgement orthographic pair is especially interesting in that the dictionary preferences in British English and American English reversed between 1800 and now, with many British dictionaries shifting from Johnson's judgment to judgement and virtually all U.S. dictionaries shifting from Webster's judgement to judgment. The only other clear instance of this type of double reversal in British and U.S. English spellings that I'm aware of is waggon/wagon—although a case could be made for sceptic/skeptic, too.






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    I grew up spelling it with the "e" in the middle. I can almost remember when this changed, but not quite. Leaving out the "e" defies the rules of pronunciation I learned. Without the "e" the "g" in "judgment" becomes the hard "g." I believe the only correct spelling is "judgement." I don't know who changed it, or why; it just needs to be changed back.






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    • 2




      I certainly hope you’re not old enough to remember when the e was lost, because it happened in the early 1500s. If you are, I’d have to say your avatar doesn’t look a day over 400! ‘Judgement’ is not the “only correct spelling”, it’s just the one you grew up with. Getting rid of the e does not ‘alter’ the pronunciation of dg. The letters used to describe the sounds in a word are arbitrary in English and cannot be ‘altered’. Poor Lord Edgware would be most displeased (if he weren’t already dead, of course).
      – Janus Bahs Jacquet
      Jan 19 '14 at 20:07




















    up vote
    0
    down vote













    From Merriam-Webster:



    Judgment can also be spelled "judgement," and usage experts have long disagreed over which spelling is the preferred one. Henry Fowler asserted, "The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] prefers the older and more reasonable spelling. 'Judgement' is therefore here recommended." William Safire held an opposite opinion, writing, "My judgment is that Fowler is not to be followed." "Judgement" is in fact the older spelling, but it dropped from favor and for centuries "judgment" was the only spelling to appear in dictionaries. That changed when the OED (Fowler's source) was published showing "judgement" as an equal variant. Today, "judgment" is more popular in the U.S., whereas both spellings make a good showing in Britain.
    Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judgement#note-1



    From "Writing Explained":



    When Noah Webster was drafting the first American English dictionary, he sought to simplify many words from the traditional British English. Webster is usually credited with the creation of many American spellings that have fewer letters than their British counterparts. Abridgement/abridgment and acknowledgement/acknowledgment are a few examples of this, as are color/colour and flavor/flavour.
    The word judgment, however, has been around just as long as the lengthier judgement and was in use long before Webster wrote his first dictionary, so while Webster didn’t invent the shorter judgment, he can still be credited with popularizing it in North America.
    Most American dictionaries and usage guides prefer the shorter judgment. The AP Stylebook, The American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary all prefer judgment.
    Interestingly enough, despite the fact that judgment is seen as a primarily American spelling, it is still the preferred form for legal works in British English.

    Source: https://writingexplained.org/judgment-or-judgement-difference






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      5 Answers
      5






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      5 Answers
      5






      active

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      oldest

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      up vote
      25
      down vote



      accepted










      I looked in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and the British National Corpus (BNC), and found this data:



      COCA:



      1        JUDGMENT   15116
      2 JUDGEMENT 584


      Ratio in American usage: 25 to 1 in favor of judgment



      BNC:



      1        JUDGMENT   3220
      2 JUDGEMENT 2441


      Ratio in British usage: 1.3 to 1 in favor of judgment



      So, it does appear that while judgment is more common in both British and American English, judgement enjoys a substantial percentage of usage in British English, but much less in American English.



      Addendum: per ShreevatsaR’s suggestion, I searched the BNC again, this time excluding all the spoken sections (“S_*”) as well as the two written legal sections: “W_nonac_law”, “W_ac_law_edu”, and got these results



      1        JUDGEMENT  2053
      2 JUDGMENT 1317


      We do now find the numbers inverted: the ratio of judgment to judgement is just 0.64. Although many of the examples remaining of judgment are in fact in a legal context anyway, we do find, though, that the spelling judgment nevertheless enjoys considerable usage in non-legal contexts. Here are a few examples:




      • “Efficiency at work is decreased and judgment impaired, with possible serious results.”

      • “There I had him as a charming, affectionate colleague of mature judgment.”

      • “It is not pleasant for a human being to pass judgment on another and say that he is evil through and through without any redeeming features”

      • Judgment of humorous writing is even more subjective than with any other kind.”






      share|improve this answer



















      • 2




        You'd get a much different distribution in British usage if you excluded legal contexts (e.g. whatever W_ac_polit_law_edu is). How does one check this?
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 26 '10 at 2:19










      • Thanks for modifying and searching again, BTW. I'd already upvoted this so I can't upvote again. :-) [It seems that with the British corpus, if you leave out newspapers and academic works (or at least social science works), you get a even more skewed distribution in favour of "judgement". The use of American spellings seems common in academic works: e.g. in India, British spellings are generally used but scientific publications tend to use American spellings.]
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 29 '10 at 7:29










      • I have of late noticed that the Economist uses the judgment spelling in its own writing, but does not respell judgement if it comes in that way in letters — and that the longer spelling seems to be more common in those.
        – tchrist
        Dec 17 '12 at 23:39












      • Google Trends is always fun to look at in these situations.
        – theblang
        Sep 16 '13 at 15:05










      • The British seem to have forgotten how to spell both judgment and acknowledgment during the 20th century. See Ngram.
        – Peter Shor
        Jan 19 '14 at 17:56















      up vote
      25
      down vote



      accepted










      I looked in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and the British National Corpus (BNC), and found this data:



      COCA:



      1        JUDGMENT   15116
      2 JUDGEMENT 584


      Ratio in American usage: 25 to 1 in favor of judgment



      BNC:



      1        JUDGMENT   3220
      2 JUDGEMENT 2441


      Ratio in British usage: 1.3 to 1 in favor of judgment



      So, it does appear that while judgment is more common in both British and American English, judgement enjoys a substantial percentage of usage in British English, but much less in American English.



      Addendum: per ShreevatsaR’s suggestion, I searched the BNC again, this time excluding all the spoken sections (“S_*”) as well as the two written legal sections: “W_nonac_law”, “W_ac_law_edu”, and got these results



      1        JUDGEMENT  2053
      2 JUDGMENT 1317


      We do now find the numbers inverted: the ratio of judgment to judgement is just 0.64. Although many of the examples remaining of judgment are in fact in a legal context anyway, we do find, though, that the spelling judgment nevertheless enjoys considerable usage in non-legal contexts. Here are a few examples:




      • “Efficiency at work is decreased and judgment impaired, with possible serious results.”

      • “There I had him as a charming, affectionate colleague of mature judgment.”

      • “It is not pleasant for a human being to pass judgment on another and say that he is evil through and through without any redeeming features”

      • Judgment of humorous writing is even more subjective than with any other kind.”






      share|improve this answer



















      • 2




        You'd get a much different distribution in British usage if you excluded legal contexts (e.g. whatever W_ac_polit_law_edu is). How does one check this?
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 26 '10 at 2:19










      • Thanks for modifying and searching again, BTW. I'd already upvoted this so I can't upvote again. :-) [It seems that with the British corpus, if you leave out newspapers and academic works (or at least social science works), you get a even more skewed distribution in favour of "judgement". The use of American spellings seems common in academic works: e.g. in India, British spellings are generally used but scientific publications tend to use American spellings.]
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 29 '10 at 7:29










      • I have of late noticed that the Economist uses the judgment spelling in its own writing, but does not respell judgement if it comes in that way in letters — and that the longer spelling seems to be more common in those.
        – tchrist
        Dec 17 '12 at 23:39












      • Google Trends is always fun to look at in these situations.
        – theblang
        Sep 16 '13 at 15:05










      • The British seem to have forgotten how to spell both judgment and acknowledgment during the 20th century. See Ngram.
        – Peter Shor
        Jan 19 '14 at 17:56













      up vote
      25
      down vote



      accepted







      up vote
      25
      down vote



      accepted






      I looked in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and the British National Corpus (BNC), and found this data:



      COCA:



      1        JUDGMENT   15116
      2 JUDGEMENT 584


      Ratio in American usage: 25 to 1 in favor of judgment



      BNC:



      1        JUDGMENT   3220
      2 JUDGEMENT 2441


      Ratio in British usage: 1.3 to 1 in favor of judgment



      So, it does appear that while judgment is more common in both British and American English, judgement enjoys a substantial percentage of usage in British English, but much less in American English.



      Addendum: per ShreevatsaR’s suggestion, I searched the BNC again, this time excluding all the spoken sections (“S_*”) as well as the two written legal sections: “W_nonac_law”, “W_ac_law_edu”, and got these results



      1        JUDGEMENT  2053
      2 JUDGMENT 1317


      We do now find the numbers inverted: the ratio of judgment to judgement is just 0.64. Although many of the examples remaining of judgment are in fact in a legal context anyway, we do find, though, that the spelling judgment nevertheless enjoys considerable usage in non-legal contexts. Here are a few examples:




      • “Efficiency at work is decreased and judgment impaired, with possible serious results.”

      • “There I had him as a charming, affectionate colleague of mature judgment.”

      • “It is not pleasant for a human being to pass judgment on another and say that he is evil through and through without any redeeming features”

      • Judgment of humorous writing is even more subjective than with any other kind.”






      share|improve this answer














      I looked in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and the British National Corpus (BNC), and found this data:



      COCA:



      1        JUDGMENT   15116
      2 JUDGEMENT 584


      Ratio in American usage: 25 to 1 in favor of judgment



      BNC:



      1        JUDGMENT   3220
      2 JUDGEMENT 2441


      Ratio in British usage: 1.3 to 1 in favor of judgment



      So, it does appear that while judgment is more common in both British and American English, judgement enjoys a substantial percentage of usage in British English, but much less in American English.



      Addendum: per ShreevatsaR’s suggestion, I searched the BNC again, this time excluding all the spoken sections (“S_*”) as well as the two written legal sections: “W_nonac_law”, “W_ac_law_edu”, and got these results



      1        JUDGEMENT  2053
      2 JUDGMENT 1317


      We do now find the numbers inverted: the ratio of judgment to judgement is just 0.64. Although many of the examples remaining of judgment are in fact in a legal context anyway, we do find, though, that the spelling judgment nevertheless enjoys considerable usage in non-legal contexts. Here are a few examples:




      • “Efficiency at work is decreased and judgment impaired, with possible serious results.”

      • “There I had him as a charming, affectionate colleague of mature judgment.”

      • “It is not pleasant for a human being to pass judgment on another and say that he is evil through and through without any redeeming features”

      • Judgment of humorous writing is even more subjective than with any other kind.”







      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited Aug 26 '10 at 2:51

























      answered Aug 25 '10 at 18:14









      nohat

      59.6k12166236




      59.6k12166236








      • 2




        You'd get a much different distribution in British usage if you excluded legal contexts (e.g. whatever W_ac_polit_law_edu is). How does one check this?
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 26 '10 at 2:19










      • Thanks for modifying and searching again, BTW. I'd already upvoted this so I can't upvote again. :-) [It seems that with the British corpus, if you leave out newspapers and academic works (or at least social science works), you get a even more skewed distribution in favour of "judgement". The use of American spellings seems common in academic works: e.g. in India, British spellings are generally used but scientific publications tend to use American spellings.]
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 29 '10 at 7:29










      • I have of late noticed that the Economist uses the judgment spelling in its own writing, but does not respell judgement if it comes in that way in letters — and that the longer spelling seems to be more common in those.
        – tchrist
        Dec 17 '12 at 23:39












      • Google Trends is always fun to look at in these situations.
        – theblang
        Sep 16 '13 at 15:05










      • The British seem to have forgotten how to spell both judgment and acknowledgment during the 20th century. See Ngram.
        – Peter Shor
        Jan 19 '14 at 17:56














      • 2




        You'd get a much different distribution in British usage if you excluded legal contexts (e.g. whatever W_ac_polit_law_edu is). How does one check this?
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 26 '10 at 2:19










      • Thanks for modifying and searching again, BTW. I'd already upvoted this so I can't upvote again. :-) [It seems that with the British corpus, if you leave out newspapers and academic works (or at least social science works), you get a even more skewed distribution in favour of "judgement". The use of American spellings seems common in academic works: e.g. in India, British spellings are generally used but scientific publications tend to use American spellings.]
        – ShreevatsaR
        Aug 29 '10 at 7:29










      • I have of late noticed that the Economist uses the judgment spelling in its own writing, but does not respell judgement if it comes in that way in letters — and that the longer spelling seems to be more common in those.
        – tchrist
        Dec 17 '12 at 23:39












      • Google Trends is always fun to look at in these situations.
        – theblang
        Sep 16 '13 at 15:05










      • The British seem to have forgotten how to spell both judgment and acknowledgment during the 20th century. See Ngram.
        – Peter Shor
        Jan 19 '14 at 17:56








      2




      2




      You'd get a much different distribution in British usage if you excluded legal contexts (e.g. whatever W_ac_polit_law_edu is). How does one check this?
      – ShreevatsaR
      Aug 26 '10 at 2:19




      You'd get a much different distribution in British usage if you excluded legal contexts (e.g. whatever W_ac_polit_law_edu is). How does one check this?
      – ShreevatsaR
      Aug 26 '10 at 2:19












      Thanks for modifying and searching again, BTW. I'd already upvoted this so I can't upvote again. :-) [It seems that with the British corpus, if you leave out newspapers and academic works (or at least social science works), you get a even more skewed distribution in favour of "judgement". The use of American spellings seems common in academic works: e.g. in India, British spellings are generally used but scientific publications tend to use American spellings.]
      – ShreevatsaR
      Aug 29 '10 at 7:29




      Thanks for modifying and searching again, BTW. I'd already upvoted this so I can't upvote again. :-) [It seems that with the British corpus, if you leave out newspapers and academic works (or at least social science works), you get a even more skewed distribution in favour of "judgement". The use of American spellings seems common in academic works: e.g. in India, British spellings are generally used but scientific publications tend to use American spellings.]
      – ShreevatsaR
      Aug 29 '10 at 7:29












      I have of late noticed that the Economist uses the judgment spelling in its own writing, but does not respell judgement if it comes in that way in letters — and that the longer spelling seems to be more common in those.
      – tchrist
      Dec 17 '12 at 23:39






      I have of late noticed that the Economist uses the judgment spelling in its own writing, but does not respell judgement if it comes in that way in letters — and that the longer spelling seems to be more common in those.
      – tchrist
      Dec 17 '12 at 23:39














      Google Trends is always fun to look at in these situations.
      – theblang
      Sep 16 '13 at 15:05




      Google Trends is always fun to look at in these situations.
      – theblang
      Sep 16 '13 at 15:05












      The British seem to have forgotten how to spell both judgment and acknowledgment during the 20th century. See Ngram.
      – Peter Shor
      Jan 19 '14 at 17:56




      The British seem to have forgotten how to spell both judgment and acknowledgment during the 20th century. See Ngram.
      – Peter Shor
      Jan 19 '14 at 17:56












      up vote
      11
      down vote













      Both the spellings are correct; which one is used depends on the context, and the English dialect.



      As reported by the New Oxford American Dictionary:




      In British English, the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and standard in North American English.







      share|improve this answer



















      • 2




        Interesting that in British legal contexts they use "judgment".
        – Kosmonaut
        Aug 22 '10 at 2:59






      • 3




        @Kosmonaut: that's to avoid ambiguity, when you say that the judge's judgment showed good judgement.
        – TimLymington
        May 14 '11 at 23:02






      • 2




        @TimLymington: I'm not sure that logic really holds up. How many words exist with both an everyday meaning and a legal meaning? A huge amount: case, action, answer, appeal, recess, discovery, etc., just to name a few. There is no problem with spelling these words the same in both contexts. Furthermore, the word judgment is spelled the same in the US in all contexts, and there is no ambiguity problem.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 15 '11 at 0:47






      • 1




        @Kosmonaut: I didn't say it was flawless, or even logical. I just said that's the reason in the British legal system.
        – TimLymington
        May 28 '11 at 16:14






      • 3




        @TimLymington: But I don't think there is historical evidence for that.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 29 '11 at 20:23















      up vote
      11
      down vote













      Both the spellings are correct; which one is used depends on the context, and the English dialect.



      As reported by the New Oxford American Dictionary:




      In British English, the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and standard in North American English.







      share|improve this answer



















      • 2




        Interesting that in British legal contexts they use "judgment".
        – Kosmonaut
        Aug 22 '10 at 2:59






      • 3




        @Kosmonaut: that's to avoid ambiguity, when you say that the judge's judgment showed good judgement.
        – TimLymington
        May 14 '11 at 23:02






      • 2




        @TimLymington: I'm not sure that logic really holds up. How many words exist with both an everyday meaning and a legal meaning? A huge amount: case, action, answer, appeal, recess, discovery, etc., just to name a few. There is no problem with spelling these words the same in both contexts. Furthermore, the word judgment is spelled the same in the US in all contexts, and there is no ambiguity problem.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 15 '11 at 0:47






      • 1




        @Kosmonaut: I didn't say it was flawless, or even logical. I just said that's the reason in the British legal system.
        – TimLymington
        May 28 '11 at 16:14






      • 3




        @TimLymington: But I don't think there is historical evidence for that.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 29 '11 at 20:23













      up vote
      11
      down vote










      up vote
      11
      down vote









      Both the spellings are correct; which one is used depends on the context, and the English dialect.



      As reported by the New Oxford American Dictionary:




      In British English, the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and standard in North American English.







      share|improve this answer














      Both the spellings are correct; which one is used depends on the context, and the English dialect.



      As reported by the New Oxford American Dictionary:




      In British English, the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and standard in North American English.








      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited Dec 17 '12 at 23:44

























      answered Aug 22 '10 at 1:45









      kiamlaluno

      43.3k56180295




      43.3k56180295








      • 2




        Interesting that in British legal contexts they use "judgment".
        – Kosmonaut
        Aug 22 '10 at 2:59






      • 3




        @Kosmonaut: that's to avoid ambiguity, when you say that the judge's judgment showed good judgement.
        – TimLymington
        May 14 '11 at 23:02






      • 2




        @TimLymington: I'm not sure that logic really holds up. How many words exist with both an everyday meaning and a legal meaning? A huge amount: case, action, answer, appeal, recess, discovery, etc., just to name a few. There is no problem with spelling these words the same in both contexts. Furthermore, the word judgment is spelled the same in the US in all contexts, and there is no ambiguity problem.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 15 '11 at 0:47






      • 1




        @Kosmonaut: I didn't say it was flawless, or even logical. I just said that's the reason in the British legal system.
        – TimLymington
        May 28 '11 at 16:14






      • 3




        @TimLymington: But I don't think there is historical evidence for that.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 29 '11 at 20:23














      • 2




        Interesting that in British legal contexts they use "judgment".
        – Kosmonaut
        Aug 22 '10 at 2:59






      • 3




        @Kosmonaut: that's to avoid ambiguity, when you say that the judge's judgment showed good judgement.
        – TimLymington
        May 14 '11 at 23:02






      • 2




        @TimLymington: I'm not sure that logic really holds up. How many words exist with both an everyday meaning and a legal meaning? A huge amount: case, action, answer, appeal, recess, discovery, etc., just to name a few. There is no problem with spelling these words the same in both contexts. Furthermore, the word judgment is spelled the same in the US in all contexts, and there is no ambiguity problem.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 15 '11 at 0:47






      • 1




        @Kosmonaut: I didn't say it was flawless, or even logical. I just said that's the reason in the British legal system.
        – TimLymington
        May 28 '11 at 16:14






      • 3




        @TimLymington: But I don't think there is historical evidence for that.
        – Kosmonaut
        May 29 '11 at 20:23








      2




      2




      Interesting that in British legal contexts they use "judgment".
      – Kosmonaut
      Aug 22 '10 at 2:59




      Interesting that in British legal contexts they use "judgment".
      – Kosmonaut
      Aug 22 '10 at 2:59




      3




      3




      @Kosmonaut: that's to avoid ambiguity, when you say that the judge's judgment showed good judgement.
      – TimLymington
      May 14 '11 at 23:02




      @Kosmonaut: that's to avoid ambiguity, when you say that the judge's judgment showed good judgement.
      – TimLymington
      May 14 '11 at 23:02




      2




      2




      @TimLymington: I'm not sure that logic really holds up. How many words exist with both an everyday meaning and a legal meaning? A huge amount: case, action, answer, appeal, recess, discovery, etc., just to name a few. There is no problem with spelling these words the same in both contexts. Furthermore, the word judgment is spelled the same in the US in all contexts, and there is no ambiguity problem.
      – Kosmonaut
      May 15 '11 at 0:47




      @TimLymington: I'm not sure that logic really holds up. How many words exist with both an everyday meaning and a legal meaning? A huge amount: case, action, answer, appeal, recess, discovery, etc., just to name a few. There is no problem with spelling these words the same in both contexts. Furthermore, the word judgment is spelled the same in the US in all contexts, and there is no ambiguity problem.
      – Kosmonaut
      May 15 '11 at 0:47




      1




      1




      @Kosmonaut: I didn't say it was flawless, or even logical. I just said that's the reason in the British legal system.
      – TimLymington
      May 28 '11 at 16:14




      @Kosmonaut: I didn't say it was flawless, or even logical. I just said that's the reason in the British legal system.
      – TimLymington
      May 28 '11 at 16:14




      3




      3




      @TimLymington: But I don't think there is historical evidence for that.
      – Kosmonaut
      May 29 '11 at 20:23




      @TimLymington: But I don't think there is historical evidence for that.
      – Kosmonaut
      May 29 '11 at 20:23










      up vote
      4
      down vote













      Current preferences



      To judge from the Ngram chart for judgement (blue line) versus judgment (red line) for the period 1675–2008, judgment has been the more common spelling for more than 300 years:





      The preference exists (although with a steadily narrowing gap between 1875 and 1990) for sources that Google Books classifies as "British English":





      and for sources that Google Books classifies as "American English":





      So it would be inaccurate to assert that judgement is the standard British English spelling, although that spelling clearly is much more common in British English than in American English.





      Background of the British preference



      It bears noting that Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1756) lists only the spelling judgment:




      JUDGMENT. s. {jugement, French} 1. The power of discerning the relations between one term or one proposition and another. Locke. 2. Doom; the right or power of passing judgment. Shakespeare. 3. The act of exercising judicature. Addison. 4. Determination; decision. Burnet. 5. The quality of distinguishing propriety and impropriety. Dennis. 6. Opinion ; notion. Shakespeare. 7. Sentence against a criminal. Milton. 8. Condemnation. Tillotson. 9. Punishment inflicted by providence. Addison. 10. Distribution of Justice. Arbuthnot. 11. Judiciary laws; statutes. Deut[e]r[onomy]. 12. The last doom. Shakespeare.




      Evidently, Johnson considered that the spelling judgment applied to all of these meaning, with no splitting between legal senses of the word and senses involving personal qualities of insight or discrimination.



      The third edition (1867), the fifth edition (1773), and the tenth edition (1792) of Johnson's Dictionary retain the same entry and the same spelling.



      The change in British preferences appears to have been prompted by the Rev. J. H. Todd's revision of Johnson's Dictionary (1827), which retains Johnson's definitions but changes the spelling to judgement.



      Joseph Worcester, A Dictionary of the English Language, volume 1 (1860), page 794, has this interesting note on the orthography of the word:




      The following words, abridgment, acknowledgment, and judgment, are to be found, with the orthography here given, in the English dictionaries which preceded the publication of Mr. Todd's improved editions of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. Todd altered Johnson's orthography of these words by the insertion of an e, thus, abridgement, acknowledgement, judgement; and he remarks, "Several authors have revived this orthography, retaining the e to soften, as Lowth observes on judgement, the preceding g, and as Johnson himself analogically writes lodgement."



      The English dictionaries of Jameson and Smart, which have appeared since the publication of Todd's edition of Johnson, also retain the e; and Smart remarks, in relation to the three words in question, that "Todd restores the e in order that they may not exhibit the otherwise unexampled irregularity of g soft before a consonant;" and he "adopts the more correct, however less usual, spelling;" and in his Grammar he says, "It is certainly better to write judgement, abridgement, acknowledgement, &c., than judgment, &c., since, by the general laws of pronunciation, g is hard in terminating a syllable." Many respectable writers now insert the e in these words. The omission of it, however, has been hitherto, and continues to be, the prevailing usage; but it is perhaps not very improbable that the more consistent orthography may yet be generally adopted.






      Background of the American preference



      Meanwhile, the U.S. spelling preference went in the opposite direction. Noah Webster's first dictionary, (1806) has this entry for judgement:




      Judgement, n., a sentence, decision, opinion, skill




      Webster doesn't present a rationale for this break with Johnson's orthography, and his spelling here is inconsistent with his treatment in the same dictionary of acknowledgment and abridgment.



      But in his voluminous An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster (again without explanation) reverses his judgement to judgment:




      JUDGMENT, n., {Fr. jugement} [1.] The act of judging ; the act or process of the mind in comparing its ideas, to find their agreement or disagreement, and to ascertain truth ; or the process of examining facts and arguments, to ascertain propriety and justice; or the process of examining the the relations between one proposition and another. Locke. Encyc. Johnson. ...




      ... and so on through seventeen more definitions, many of them extracted from senses of the word that Webster finds in Biblical quotations.



      Although Webster doesn't explain the flip-flop, he appears elsewhere to be quite critical of what might be termed the superfluous silent e (as in axe, ermine, iodine, jasmine, and medicine, all of which words Webster at one time or another rendered without the final e). The real surprise is that he broke with Johnson's spelling of judgment back in 1806.





      Conclusion



      Insofar as British English may be said to favor judgement and American English judgment, responsibility for those preferences seems to rest with the prescriptive orthographical choices of J. H. Todd and Noah Webster.



      The judgment/judgement orthographic pair is especially interesting in that the dictionary preferences in British English and American English reversed between 1800 and now, with many British dictionaries shifting from Johnson's judgment to judgement and virtually all U.S. dictionaries shifting from Webster's judgement to judgment. The only other clear instance of this type of double reversal in British and U.S. English spellings that I'm aware of is waggon/wagon—although a case could be made for sceptic/skeptic, too.






      share|improve this answer



























        up vote
        4
        down vote













        Current preferences



        To judge from the Ngram chart for judgement (blue line) versus judgment (red line) for the period 1675–2008, judgment has been the more common spelling for more than 300 years:





        The preference exists (although with a steadily narrowing gap between 1875 and 1990) for sources that Google Books classifies as "British English":





        and for sources that Google Books classifies as "American English":





        So it would be inaccurate to assert that judgement is the standard British English spelling, although that spelling clearly is much more common in British English than in American English.





        Background of the British preference



        It bears noting that Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1756) lists only the spelling judgment:




        JUDGMENT. s. {jugement, French} 1. The power of discerning the relations between one term or one proposition and another. Locke. 2. Doom; the right or power of passing judgment. Shakespeare. 3. The act of exercising judicature. Addison. 4. Determination; decision. Burnet. 5. The quality of distinguishing propriety and impropriety. Dennis. 6. Opinion ; notion. Shakespeare. 7. Sentence against a criminal. Milton. 8. Condemnation. Tillotson. 9. Punishment inflicted by providence. Addison. 10. Distribution of Justice. Arbuthnot. 11. Judiciary laws; statutes. Deut[e]r[onomy]. 12. The last doom. Shakespeare.




        Evidently, Johnson considered that the spelling judgment applied to all of these meaning, with no splitting between legal senses of the word and senses involving personal qualities of insight or discrimination.



        The third edition (1867), the fifth edition (1773), and the tenth edition (1792) of Johnson's Dictionary retain the same entry and the same spelling.



        The change in British preferences appears to have been prompted by the Rev. J. H. Todd's revision of Johnson's Dictionary (1827), which retains Johnson's definitions but changes the spelling to judgement.



        Joseph Worcester, A Dictionary of the English Language, volume 1 (1860), page 794, has this interesting note on the orthography of the word:




        The following words, abridgment, acknowledgment, and judgment, are to be found, with the orthography here given, in the English dictionaries which preceded the publication of Mr. Todd's improved editions of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. Todd altered Johnson's orthography of these words by the insertion of an e, thus, abridgement, acknowledgement, judgement; and he remarks, "Several authors have revived this orthography, retaining the e to soften, as Lowth observes on judgement, the preceding g, and as Johnson himself analogically writes lodgement."



        The English dictionaries of Jameson and Smart, which have appeared since the publication of Todd's edition of Johnson, also retain the e; and Smart remarks, in relation to the three words in question, that "Todd restores the e in order that they may not exhibit the otherwise unexampled irregularity of g soft before a consonant;" and he "adopts the more correct, however less usual, spelling;" and in his Grammar he says, "It is certainly better to write judgement, abridgement, acknowledgement, &c., than judgment, &c., since, by the general laws of pronunciation, g is hard in terminating a syllable." Many respectable writers now insert the e in these words. The omission of it, however, has been hitherto, and continues to be, the prevailing usage; but it is perhaps not very improbable that the more consistent orthography may yet be generally adopted.






        Background of the American preference



        Meanwhile, the U.S. spelling preference went in the opposite direction. Noah Webster's first dictionary, (1806) has this entry for judgement:




        Judgement, n., a sentence, decision, opinion, skill




        Webster doesn't present a rationale for this break with Johnson's orthography, and his spelling here is inconsistent with his treatment in the same dictionary of acknowledgment and abridgment.



        But in his voluminous An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster (again without explanation) reverses his judgement to judgment:




        JUDGMENT, n., {Fr. jugement} [1.] The act of judging ; the act or process of the mind in comparing its ideas, to find their agreement or disagreement, and to ascertain truth ; or the process of examining facts and arguments, to ascertain propriety and justice; or the process of examining the the relations between one proposition and another. Locke. Encyc. Johnson. ...




        ... and so on through seventeen more definitions, many of them extracted from senses of the word that Webster finds in Biblical quotations.



        Although Webster doesn't explain the flip-flop, he appears elsewhere to be quite critical of what might be termed the superfluous silent e (as in axe, ermine, iodine, jasmine, and medicine, all of which words Webster at one time or another rendered without the final e). The real surprise is that he broke with Johnson's spelling of judgment back in 1806.





        Conclusion



        Insofar as British English may be said to favor judgement and American English judgment, responsibility for those preferences seems to rest with the prescriptive orthographical choices of J. H. Todd and Noah Webster.



        The judgment/judgement orthographic pair is especially interesting in that the dictionary preferences in British English and American English reversed between 1800 and now, with many British dictionaries shifting from Johnson's judgment to judgement and virtually all U.S. dictionaries shifting from Webster's judgement to judgment. The only other clear instance of this type of double reversal in British and U.S. English spellings that I'm aware of is waggon/wagon—although a case could be made for sceptic/skeptic, too.






        share|improve this answer

























          up vote
          4
          down vote










          up vote
          4
          down vote









          Current preferences



          To judge from the Ngram chart for judgement (blue line) versus judgment (red line) for the period 1675–2008, judgment has been the more common spelling for more than 300 years:





          The preference exists (although with a steadily narrowing gap between 1875 and 1990) for sources that Google Books classifies as "British English":





          and for sources that Google Books classifies as "American English":





          So it would be inaccurate to assert that judgement is the standard British English spelling, although that spelling clearly is much more common in British English than in American English.





          Background of the British preference



          It bears noting that Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1756) lists only the spelling judgment:




          JUDGMENT. s. {jugement, French} 1. The power of discerning the relations between one term or one proposition and another. Locke. 2. Doom; the right or power of passing judgment. Shakespeare. 3. The act of exercising judicature. Addison. 4. Determination; decision. Burnet. 5. The quality of distinguishing propriety and impropriety. Dennis. 6. Opinion ; notion. Shakespeare. 7. Sentence against a criminal. Milton. 8. Condemnation. Tillotson. 9. Punishment inflicted by providence. Addison. 10. Distribution of Justice. Arbuthnot. 11. Judiciary laws; statutes. Deut[e]r[onomy]. 12. The last doom. Shakespeare.




          Evidently, Johnson considered that the spelling judgment applied to all of these meaning, with no splitting between legal senses of the word and senses involving personal qualities of insight or discrimination.



          The third edition (1867), the fifth edition (1773), and the tenth edition (1792) of Johnson's Dictionary retain the same entry and the same spelling.



          The change in British preferences appears to have been prompted by the Rev. J. H. Todd's revision of Johnson's Dictionary (1827), which retains Johnson's definitions but changes the spelling to judgement.



          Joseph Worcester, A Dictionary of the English Language, volume 1 (1860), page 794, has this interesting note on the orthography of the word:




          The following words, abridgment, acknowledgment, and judgment, are to be found, with the orthography here given, in the English dictionaries which preceded the publication of Mr. Todd's improved editions of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. Todd altered Johnson's orthography of these words by the insertion of an e, thus, abridgement, acknowledgement, judgement; and he remarks, "Several authors have revived this orthography, retaining the e to soften, as Lowth observes on judgement, the preceding g, and as Johnson himself analogically writes lodgement."



          The English dictionaries of Jameson and Smart, which have appeared since the publication of Todd's edition of Johnson, also retain the e; and Smart remarks, in relation to the three words in question, that "Todd restores the e in order that they may not exhibit the otherwise unexampled irregularity of g soft before a consonant;" and he "adopts the more correct, however less usual, spelling;" and in his Grammar he says, "It is certainly better to write judgement, abridgement, acknowledgement, &c., than judgment, &c., since, by the general laws of pronunciation, g is hard in terminating a syllable." Many respectable writers now insert the e in these words. The omission of it, however, has been hitherto, and continues to be, the prevailing usage; but it is perhaps not very improbable that the more consistent orthography may yet be generally adopted.






          Background of the American preference



          Meanwhile, the U.S. spelling preference went in the opposite direction. Noah Webster's first dictionary, (1806) has this entry for judgement:




          Judgement, n., a sentence, decision, opinion, skill




          Webster doesn't present a rationale for this break with Johnson's orthography, and his spelling here is inconsistent with his treatment in the same dictionary of acknowledgment and abridgment.



          But in his voluminous An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster (again without explanation) reverses his judgement to judgment:




          JUDGMENT, n., {Fr. jugement} [1.] The act of judging ; the act or process of the mind in comparing its ideas, to find their agreement or disagreement, and to ascertain truth ; or the process of examining facts and arguments, to ascertain propriety and justice; or the process of examining the the relations between one proposition and another. Locke. Encyc. Johnson. ...




          ... and so on through seventeen more definitions, many of them extracted from senses of the word that Webster finds in Biblical quotations.



          Although Webster doesn't explain the flip-flop, he appears elsewhere to be quite critical of what might be termed the superfluous silent e (as in axe, ermine, iodine, jasmine, and medicine, all of which words Webster at one time or another rendered without the final e). The real surprise is that he broke with Johnson's spelling of judgment back in 1806.





          Conclusion



          Insofar as British English may be said to favor judgement and American English judgment, responsibility for those preferences seems to rest with the prescriptive orthographical choices of J. H. Todd and Noah Webster.



          The judgment/judgement orthographic pair is especially interesting in that the dictionary preferences in British English and American English reversed between 1800 and now, with many British dictionaries shifting from Johnson's judgment to judgement and virtually all U.S. dictionaries shifting from Webster's judgement to judgment. The only other clear instance of this type of double reversal in British and U.S. English spellings that I'm aware of is waggon/wagon—although a case could be made for sceptic/skeptic, too.






          share|improve this answer














          Current preferences



          To judge from the Ngram chart for judgement (blue line) versus judgment (red line) for the period 1675–2008, judgment has been the more common spelling for more than 300 years:





          The preference exists (although with a steadily narrowing gap between 1875 and 1990) for sources that Google Books classifies as "British English":





          and for sources that Google Books classifies as "American English":





          So it would be inaccurate to assert that judgement is the standard British English spelling, although that spelling clearly is much more common in British English than in American English.





          Background of the British preference



          It bears noting that Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1756) lists only the spelling judgment:




          JUDGMENT. s. {jugement, French} 1. The power of discerning the relations between one term or one proposition and another. Locke. 2. Doom; the right or power of passing judgment. Shakespeare. 3. The act of exercising judicature. Addison. 4. Determination; decision. Burnet. 5. The quality of distinguishing propriety and impropriety. Dennis. 6. Opinion ; notion. Shakespeare. 7. Sentence against a criminal. Milton. 8. Condemnation. Tillotson. 9. Punishment inflicted by providence. Addison. 10. Distribution of Justice. Arbuthnot. 11. Judiciary laws; statutes. Deut[e]r[onomy]. 12. The last doom. Shakespeare.




          Evidently, Johnson considered that the spelling judgment applied to all of these meaning, with no splitting between legal senses of the word and senses involving personal qualities of insight or discrimination.



          The third edition (1867), the fifth edition (1773), and the tenth edition (1792) of Johnson's Dictionary retain the same entry and the same spelling.



          The change in British preferences appears to have been prompted by the Rev. J. H. Todd's revision of Johnson's Dictionary (1827), which retains Johnson's definitions but changes the spelling to judgement.



          Joseph Worcester, A Dictionary of the English Language, volume 1 (1860), page 794, has this interesting note on the orthography of the word:




          The following words, abridgment, acknowledgment, and judgment, are to be found, with the orthography here given, in the English dictionaries which preceded the publication of Mr. Todd's improved editions of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. Todd altered Johnson's orthography of these words by the insertion of an e, thus, abridgement, acknowledgement, judgement; and he remarks, "Several authors have revived this orthography, retaining the e to soften, as Lowth observes on judgement, the preceding g, and as Johnson himself analogically writes lodgement."



          The English dictionaries of Jameson and Smart, which have appeared since the publication of Todd's edition of Johnson, also retain the e; and Smart remarks, in relation to the three words in question, that "Todd restores the e in order that they may not exhibit the otherwise unexampled irregularity of g soft before a consonant;" and he "adopts the more correct, however less usual, spelling;" and in his Grammar he says, "It is certainly better to write judgement, abridgement, acknowledgement, &c., than judgment, &c., since, by the general laws of pronunciation, g is hard in terminating a syllable." Many respectable writers now insert the e in these words. The omission of it, however, has been hitherto, and continues to be, the prevailing usage; but it is perhaps not very improbable that the more consistent orthography may yet be generally adopted.






          Background of the American preference



          Meanwhile, the U.S. spelling preference went in the opposite direction. Noah Webster's first dictionary, (1806) has this entry for judgement:




          Judgement, n., a sentence, decision, opinion, skill




          Webster doesn't present a rationale for this break with Johnson's orthography, and his spelling here is inconsistent with his treatment in the same dictionary of acknowledgment and abridgment.



          But in his voluminous An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster (again without explanation) reverses his judgement to judgment:




          JUDGMENT, n., {Fr. jugement} [1.] The act of judging ; the act or process of the mind in comparing its ideas, to find their agreement or disagreement, and to ascertain truth ; or the process of examining facts and arguments, to ascertain propriety and justice; or the process of examining the the relations between one proposition and another. Locke. Encyc. Johnson. ...




          ... and so on through seventeen more definitions, many of them extracted from senses of the word that Webster finds in Biblical quotations.



          Although Webster doesn't explain the flip-flop, he appears elsewhere to be quite critical of what might be termed the superfluous silent e (as in axe, ermine, iodine, jasmine, and medicine, all of which words Webster at one time or another rendered without the final e). The real surprise is that he broke with Johnson's spelling of judgment back in 1806.





          Conclusion



          Insofar as British English may be said to favor judgement and American English judgment, responsibility for those preferences seems to rest with the prescriptive orthographical choices of J. H. Todd and Noah Webster.



          The judgment/judgement orthographic pair is especially interesting in that the dictionary preferences in British English and American English reversed between 1800 and now, with many British dictionaries shifting from Johnson's judgment to judgement and virtually all U.S. dictionaries shifting from Webster's judgement to judgment. The only other clear instance of this type of double reversal in British and U.S. English spellings that I'm aware of is waggon/wagon—although a case could be made for sceptic/skeptic, too.







          share|improve this answer














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          edited Mar 20 at 1:51

























          answered Feb 21 '17 at 21:23









          Sven Yargs

          110k18234490




          110k18234490






















              up vote
              0
              down vote













              I grew up spelling it with the "e" in the middle. I can almost remember when this changed, but not quite. Leaving out the "e" defies the rules of pronunciation I learned. Without the "e" the "g" in "judgment" becomes the hard "g." I believe the only correct spelling is "judgement." I don't know who changed it, or why; it just needs to be changed back.






              share|improve this answer

















              • 2




                I certainly hope you’re not old enough to remember when the e was lost, because it happened in the early 1500s. If you are, I’d have to say your avatar doesn’t look a day over 400! ‘Judgement’ is not the “only correct spelling”, it’s just the one you grew up with. Getting rid of the e does not ‘alter’ the pronunciation of dg. The letters used to describe the sounds in a word are arbitrary in English and cannot be ‘altered’. Poor Lord Edgware would be most displeased (if he weren’t already dead, of course).
                – Janus Bahs Jacquet
                Jan 19 '14 at 20:07

















              up vote
              0
              down vote













              I grew up spelling it with the "e" in the middle. I can almost remember when this changed, but not quite. Leaving out the "e" defies the rules of pronunciation I learned. Without the "e" the "g" in "judgment" becomes the hard "g." I believe the only correct spelling is "judgement." I don't know who changed it, or why; it just needs to be changed back.






              share|improve this answer

















              • 2




                I certainly hope you’re not old enough to remember when the e was lost, because it happened in the early 1500s. If you are, I’d have to say your avatar doesn’t look a day over 400! ‘Judgement’ is not the “only correct spelling”, it’s just the one you grew up with. Getting rid of the e does not ‘alter’ the pronunciation of dg. The letters used to describe the sounds in a word are arbitrary in English and cannot be ‘altered’. Poor Lord Edgware would be most displeased (if he weren’t already dead, of course).
                – Janus Bahs Jacquet
                Jan 19 '14 at 20:07















              up vote
              0
              down vote










              up vote
              0
              down vote









              I grew up spelling it with the "e" in the middle. I can almost remember when this changed, but not quite. Leaving out the "e" defies the rules of pronunciation I learned. Without the "e" the "g" in "judgment" becomes the hard "g." I believe the only correct spelling is "judgement." I don't know who changed it, or why; it just needs to be changed back.






              share|improve this answer












              I grew up spelling it with the "e" in the middle. I can almost remember when this changed, but not quite. Leaving out the "e" defies the rules of pronunciation I learned. Without the "e" the "g" in "judgment" becomes the hard "g." I believe the only correct spelling is "judgement." I don't know who changed it, or why; it just needs to be changed back.







              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered Jan 19 '14 at 17:49









              Katy Darlington

              171




              171








              • 2




                I certainly hope you’re not old enough to remember when the e was lost, because it happened in the early 1500s. If you are, I’d have to say your avatar doesn’t look a day over 400! ‘Judgement’ is not the “only correct spelling”, it’s just the one you grew up with. Getting rid of the e does not ‘alter’ the pronunciation of dg. The letters used to describe the sounds in a word are arbitrary in English and cannot be ‘altered’. Poor Lord Edgware would be most displeased (if he weren’t already dead, of course).
                – Janus Bahs Jacquet
                Jan 19 '14 at 20:07
















              • 2




                I certainly hope you’re not old enough to remember when the e was lost, because it happened in the early 1500s. If you are, I’d have to say your avatar doesn’t look a day over 400! ‘Judgement’ is not the “only correct spelling”, it’s just the one you grew up with. Getting rid of the e does not ‘alter’ the pronunciation of dg. The letters used to describe the sounds in a word are arbitrary in English and cannot be ‘altered’. Poor Lord Edgware would be most displeased (if he weren’t already dead, of course).
                – Janus Bahs Jacquet
                Jan 19 '14 at 20:07










              2




              2




              I certainly hope you’re not old enough to remember when the e was lost, because it happened in the early 1500s. If you are, I’d have to say your avatar doesn’t look a day over 400! ‘Judgement’ is not the “only correct spelling”, it’s just the one you grew up with. Getting rid of the e does not ‘alter’ the pronunciation of dg. The letters used to describe the sounds in a word are arbitrary in English and cannot be ‘altered’. Poor Lord Edgware would be most displeased (if he weren’t already dead, of course).
              – Janus Bahs Jacquet
              Jan 19 '14 at 20:07






              I certainly hope you’re not old enough to remember when the e was lost, because it happened in the early 1500s. If you are, I’d have to say your avatar doesn’t look a day over 400! ‘Judgement’ is not the “only correct spelling”, it’s just the one you grew up with. Getting rid of the e does not ‘alter’ the pronunciation of dg. The letters used to describe the sounds in a word are arbitrary in English and cannot be ‘altered’. Poor Lord Edgware would be most displeased (if he weren’t already dead, of course).
              – Janus Bahs Jacquet
              Jan 19 '14 at 20:07












              up vote
              0
              down vote













              From Merriam-Webster:



              Judgment can also be spelled "judgement," and usage experts have long disagreed over which spelling is the preferred one. Henry Fowler asserted, "The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] prefers the older and more reasonable spelling. 'Judgement' is therefore here recommended." William Safire held an opposite opinion, writing, "My judgment is that Fowler is not to be followed." "Judgement" is in fact the older spelling, but it dropped from favor and for centuries "judgment" was the only spelling to appear in dictionaries. That changed when the OED (Fowler's source) was published showing "judgement" as an equal variant. Today, "judgment" is more popular in the U.S., whereas both spellings make a good showing in Britain.
              Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judgement#note-1



              From "Writing Explained":



              When Noah Webster was drafting the first American English dictionary, he sought to simplify many words from the traditional British English. Webster is usually credited with the creation of many American spellings that have fewer letters than their British counterparts. Abridgement/abridgment and acknowledgement/acknowledgment are a few examples of this, as are color/colour and flavor/flavour.
              The word judgment, however, has been around just as long as the lengthier judgement and was in use long before Webster wrote his first dictionary, so while Webster didn’t invent the shorter judgment, he can still be credited with popularizing it in North America.
              Most American dictionaries and usage guides prefer the shorter judgment. The AP Stylebook, The American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary all prefer judgment.
              Interestingly enough, despite the fact that judgment is seen as a primarily American spelling, it is still the preferred form for legal works in British English.

              Source: https://writingexplained.org/judgment-or-judgement-difference






              share|improve this answer








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              user326429 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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                From Merriam-Webster:



                Judgment can also be spelled "judgement," and usage experts have long disagreed over which spelling is the preferred one. Henry Fowler asserted, "The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] prefers the older and more reasonable spelling. 'Judgement' is therefore here recommended." William Safire held an opposite opinion, writing, "My judgment is that Fowler is not to be followed." "Judgement" is in fact the older spelling, but it dropped from favor and for centuries "judgment" was the only spelling to appear in dictionaries. That changed when the OED (Fowler's source) was published showing "judgement" as an equal variant. Today, "judgment" is more popular in the U.S., whereas both spellings make a good showing in Britain.
                Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judgement#note-1



                From "Writing Explained":



                When Noah Webster was drafting the first American English dictionary, he sought to simplify many words from the traditional British English. Webster is usually credited with the creation of many American spellings that have fewer letters than their British counterparts. Abridgement/abridgment and acknowledgement/acknowledgment are a few examples of this, as are color/colour and flavor/flavour.
                The word judgment, however, has been around just as long as the lengthier judgement and was in use long before Webster wrote his first dictionary, so while Webster didn’t invent the shorter judgment, he can still be credited with popularizing it in North America.
                Most American dictionaries and usage guides prefer the shorter judgment. The AP Stylebook, The American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary all prefer judgment.
                Interestingly enough, despite the fact that judgment is seen as a primarily American spelling, it is still the preferred form for legal works in British English.

                Source: https://writingexplained.org/judgment-or-judgement-difference






                share|improve this answer








                New contributor




                user326429 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                Check out our Code of Conduct.




















                  up vote
                  0
                  down vote










                  up vote
                  0
                  down vote









                  From Merriam-Webster:



                  Judgment can also be spelled "judgement," and usage experts have long disagreed over which spelling is the preferred one. Henry Fowler asserted, "The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] prefers the older and more reasonable spelling. 'Judgement' is therefore here recommended." William Safire held an opposite opinion, writing, "My judgment is that Fowler is not to be followed." "Judgement" is in fact the older spelling, but it dropped from favor and for centuries "judgment" was the only spelling to appear in dictionaries. That changed when the OED (Fowler's source) was published showing "judgement" as an equal variant. Today, "judgment" is more popular in the U.S., whereas both spellings make a good showing in Britain.
                  Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judgement#note-1



                  From "Writing Explained":



                  When Noah Webster was drafting the first American English dictionary, he sought to simplify many words from the traditional British English. Webster is usually credited with the creation of many American spellings that have fewer letters than their British counterparts. Abridgement/abridgment and acknowledgement/acknowledgment are a few examples of this, as are color/colour and flavor/flavour.
                  The word judgment, however, has been around just as long as the lengthier judgement and was in use long before Webster wrote his first dictionary, so while Webster didn’t invent the shorter judgment, he can still be credited with popularizing it in North America.
                  Most American dictionaries and usage guides prefer the shorter judgment. The AP Stylebook, The American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary all prefer judgment.
                  Interestingly enough, despite the fact that judgment is seen as a primarily American spelling, it is still the preferred form for legal works in British English.

                  Source: https://writingexplained.org/judgment-or-judgement-difference






                  share|improve this answer








                  New contributor




                  user326429 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                  Check out our Code of Conduct.









                  From Merriam-Webster:



                  Judgment can also be spelled "judgement," and usage experts have long disagreed over which spelling is the preferred one. Henry Fowler asserted, "The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] prefers the older and more reasonable spelling. 'Judgement' is therefore here recommended." William Safire held an opposite opinion, writing, "My judgment is that Fowler is not to be followed." "Judgement" is in fact the older spelling, but it dropped from favor and for centuries "judgment" was the only spelling to appear in dictionaries. That changed when the OED (Fowler's source) was published showing "judgement" as an equal variant. Today, "judgment" is more popular in the U.S., whereas both spellings make a good showing in Britain.
                  Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judgement#note-1



                  From "Writing Explained":



                  When Noah Webster was drafting the first American English dictionary, he sought to simplify many words from the traditional British English. Webster is usually credited with the creation of many American spellings that have fewer letters than their British counterparts. Abridgement/abridgment and acknowledgement/acknowledgment are a few examples of this, as are color/colour and flavor/flavour.
                  The word judgment, however, has been around just as long as the lengthier judgement and was in use long before Webster wrote his first dictionary, so while Webster didn’t invent the shorter judgment, he can still be credited with popularizing it in North America.
                  Most American dictionaries and usage guides prefer the shorter judgment. The AP Stylebook, The American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary all prefer judgment.
                  Interestingly enough, despite the fact that judgment is seen as a primarily American spelling, it is still the preferred form for legal works in British English.

                  Source: https://writingexplained.org/judgment-or-judgement-difference







                  share|improve this answer








                  New contributor




                  user326429 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                  Check out our Code of Conduct.









                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer






                  New contributor




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                  answered Dec 1 at 12:50









                  user326429

                  1




                  1




                  New contributor




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                  New contributor





                  user326429 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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