Tardis:Spelling

Our spelling policy derives from our manual of style's commitment to using British English. Put simply, it requires editors to use British spellings in most articles.

General guidelines
British spellings should always be employed in the main namespace. This means the use of "our" in a lot of words, such as "colour", "favour" and the like. It also means the general, but not universal, preference for the suffix "-ise" over "-ize".

As of 16:01, May 30, 2011 (UTC) we have not, as a community, decided upon a single reference work that will be used to settle spelling disputes, but there are a number of freely-available pages which do offer assistance in this regard:


 * The Oxford English Dictionary. Generally regarded as "definitive", but not free to everyone. Generally free through use of local library cards, so long as your local library subscribes to it. Contact your librarian for info.]
 * Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (entirely free)
 * An overview of the basic differences from oxforddictionaries.com
 * Not exactly a spelling guide, but a useful phrase translation list
 * TravelFurther.net's American-British dictionary

None of the above resource are considered definitive by this site. They will likely guide you in the correct direction for proper British spelling. However, if and when we decide on a definitive dictionary for this site, spellings in that dictionary will supersede any given on the above sites.

Spell checking software
At its core, this policy recommends that editors switch their computer or browser's spell checker to British English while editing this site. Once that's done, you will likely be in compliance with our Manual of Style, unless you choose to simply ignore your spell checker.

If, for whatever reason, you don't have a British English spell checker available to you, then


 * A Firefox British English dictionary add-on

That said, it should be pointed out that spell checkers only point out to the user spellings that are known to be correct in a particular English variant. They do not tell you about alternate spellings that are equally valid. For instance, traveller is the primary British spelling, but traveler is a secondary spelling A frequently noticed example of British English vs. American English involves words that end in "or" vs. "our". In British English, for example, colour is spelled with "our", whereas American English spells it "color". The former is the preferred style.

Another noticeable usage different between the use of British English on this wiki and American English is our use of Organisation rather than Organization.

In keeping with the aforementioned standard, dates should place the number first, e.g. 23rd November, not November 23.

If the title of an article differs in different varieties of English, the British, or English English, title should be the article title, with alternate names being used as redirects (for example, Target Novelization redirects to Target Novelisation).

Where applicable
This policy is applicable only in namespace 0 — that is, on a page whose name does not have a prefix like Tardis:, Category:, Forum:, Howling:, or Help:. It also applies where elements from other namespaces may appear in namespace 0. Thus, category names must use British spellings, because category names are visible in namespace 0. Also, the text of templates visible in the main namespace are subject to this policy.

It does not apply to your own user pages, the forums, talk pages, help pages, MediaWiki pages, template documentation, or even project pages like this one. As a rule of thumb, if the text can't be seen on a "normal" page, this policy doesn't apply to it.

As an example, it applies to Timeline, and to the text of Template:Timeline seen on, say, 1964, but not to the text seen on Template:Timeline/doc, nor on Howling:Timeline.

This policy is also not applicable in namespace 0 if the topic in question is spelled in a non-British way within the narrative of a story, or, if merchandise, on its actual packaging. Thus, if a Doctor Who novel were to refer to the American movie, The Color of Money, the American spelling of "color" should stand.