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List Of American English Words Not Used In British English - See also main article: American and British English differences
If a word appears to be missing from this list, it is advisable to check the list of words having different meanings in British and American English, as it is possible that the word is used in both dialects. - auto, automobile
- car (as US), van (for small commercial vehicle)
- backhoe
- JCB
- barf (colloquial)
- puke (colloquial), vomit, be sick.
- barnyard
- farmyard
- bedroom community
- dormitory town
- bill (paper money)
- note
- blinders (on a horse)
- blinkers
- broil
- grill (cooking)
- Bronx cheer
- blow a raspberry
- bullhorn
- loudhailer / megaphone (occasionally bullhorn)
- burglarize
- burgle
- busboy
- (no equivalent) junior restaurant worker assisting waiting staff, table clearer, water pourer etc.
- busy signal
- engaged tone
- candy
- sweets
- canola
- (oilseed) rape
- carriage (for baby)
- pram
- cart (for shopping)
- (shopping) trolley
- check (meal payment)
- bill
- checkers
- draughts
- checking account
- current account
- cilantro
- coriander
- collect call
- reverse charge call
- condominium (or condo)
- block of flats
- cookout
- informal meal cooked and eaten outdoors - a cross between a picnic and a barbecue
- cotton candy
- candy floss
- crapshoot
- risky and uncertain venture
- cuss
- swear
- diaper
- nappy
- diner
- cafe
- drug store
- chemist, chemist's shop
- drywall
- plasterboard, or any process that builds interior walls without the use of water
- duct tape
- like gaffer tape, but silver
- dumpster
- skip
- duplex (house)
- semi-detached
- eggplant
- aubergine
- "El"
- elevated railway used in urban transport
- envision
- envisage
- fall
- autumn
- fanny pack
- bum bag
Notes: fanny is British slang for vagina, and bum is American for a lazy person or a vagrant.)'' - faucet
- tap
- flack
- publicist, PR
- flashlight
- torch
- flatware
- cutlery
- gasoline
- petrol
- gopher
- native North American rodent; or junior (office or political) worker willing to do minor tasks for little reward ("go for")
- gotten
- got (but gotten is used in some British dialects)
- green thumb
- green fingers
- gridiron
- field of play for American football
- grifter
- transient swindler (? or professional gambler?)
- hard liquor
- spirits
- hickey
- love bite (sometimes used in UK)
- hobo
- tramp, vagrant
- (hominey) grits
- coarsely ground maize boiled for breakfast, especially in the Southern USA
- intern
- temporarily employed trainee; junior hospital doctor (UK: house officer)
- irregardless (considered incorrect)
- regardless
- kleenex
- generic term for tissue (from brand name, which is known in Britain but not used generically)
- life preserver
- lifejacket
- Lifesavers(TM)
- sweets in a shape reminiscent of a life-belt, usually packaged in a roll, roughly equivalent to Polo Mints (TM)
- liquor
- alcoholic beverage (also the formal term in the UK, but rarely used in normal speech)
- liquor store
- off-licence or offie
- math
- maths
- maven
- expert
- meet with/meet up with
- meet (meet with is also used)
- movie
- film
- motion picture
- film
- named for
- named after
- narc
- law enforcement narcotics agent, not a 'nark' (police informant)
- newscaster
- news reader
- normalcy (sometimes considered incorrect)
- normality
- pantyhose
- tights
- parking lot
- car park
- popsicle
- ice lolly
- pre-authorized payment/withdrawal
- direct debit (variable amount)/standing order (fixed amount)
- railroad
- railway
- rain check
- document that authorizes one to purchase goods at a discounted price after a sale has ended (issued when an advertised item has sold out), colloquially used to request a delay to something, sometimes an indefinite delay
- rappel
- abseil (to descend on a rope)
- restroom
- toilet(s), ladies' / gents', loo, lavatory, specifically one in a public facility (as opposed to in a home)
- rutabaga
- swede
- scallion
- spring onion
- Scotch tape
- Sellotape (brand name used generically)
- sedan (car)
- saloon (car)
- semi (truck)
- artic (for articulated lorry)
- sidewalk
- pavement (unlike US, always refers to sidewalk, never to road), footpath
- skillet
- frying pan
- sophomore
- second (particularly second-year students)
- spyglass
- (terrestrial) telescope
- squash
- (vegetable) marrow
- station wagon
- estate car
- steam shovel
- mechanical excavator
- stickshift
- manual gearbox (not often used, since it's the default. The opposite is "an automatic")
- stool pigeon
- informer
- streetcar
- tram
- stroller
- pushchair, buggy
- switchback
- hairpin bend or bends
- teeter-totter, teeterboard
- see-saw
- tenderloin
- fillet steak
- theater (movie)
- cinema
- thumb tack
- rawing pin
- tic-tac-toe
- noughts and crosses
- traffic circle, rotary
- roundabout
- triplex (house)
- no direct equivalent, more than two houses joined together "terraced" houses
- trolley car
- tram
- truck stop
- transport cafe
- turn signal, directionals
- indicators
- tuxedo
- dinner jacket, 'DJ', 'black tie' (sometimes used in UK)
- two cents
- fourpenn'orth/tuppenn'orth
- undershirt
- vest, singlet
- wall jack
- electricity outlet, plug socket, phone socket, power socket, or even "plug", despite being exactly the same term as the thing that fits into it.
- wall wart
- transformer that plugs directly into the wall socket i.e. has no trailing lead/power cable
- wetback
- pejorative term for an illegal immigrant from Central/South America. So called as they are presumed to have swum the Rio Grande river to have entered the USA.
- wonk
- single minded topic specialist (boffin)
- xerox
- photocopy (although 'xerox' is still used in the UK by some older people)
- ZIP code
- postcode
- zucchini
- courgette
American English words not used in British English, List of American English words not used in British English, List of American English words not used in British English, List of
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