licence and license

In the US, use license for noun and verb. In the UK, use licence for the noun, but license for the verb. For example:

Licence and License

For those following UK conventions, there is often confusion over the words licence and license. In order to understand which to use, you must know the difference between a noun and a verb. This is because licence is a noun, but license is a verb. However, there are tricks to get around this. (See Hot Tip right.)

Examples:
"licensed" (correct version - from the verb to license)
(sign outside a public house)

A Quick Test


A LITTLE TRICK TO SPOT LICENCE 

Try using the word card (or papers) instead of licence. If the sentence still makes sense, then licence is almost certainly correct.  
(This trick works because licence is a noun, just like the words card and papers.)

A LITTLE TRICK TO SPOT LICENSE 

Try using the verb to allow (in its various forms, e.g., allowing, allowed, allows) instead of license. If the sentence still makes sense, then license is almost certainly correct. However, if you find yourself using allowance, then you should be using licence because both are nouns. (This trick works because to license is a verb, just like to allow.)

NO CONFUSION

There should be no confusion with licensing or licensed. The endings ing and ed mean these are always from the verb; i.e., there are no such words as licencing or licenced in British or American English.

LICENSE IN AMERICA

In American English, license is both noun and verb.


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See Also

What are nouns? What are verbs? List of easily confused words