BrE

Writing & Everyday abbreviation · Grammar and Dictionary

BrE stands for British English, a grammar and dictionary abbreviation.

Labels the English of the United Kingdom, particularly of England, in linguistics, language teaching and dictionaries. It contrasts vocabulary, spelling, grammar and pronunciation with other varieties.

Example: In BrE a "biscuit" is a sweet cookie, while in AmE it is a soft bread roll often served with gravy.

Usage notes

Variants include BE and BrEng. British English is far from uniform, covering many regional accents and dialects, with Received Pronunciation traditionally used as a teaching model. Irish, Australian, New Zealand and South African English share many BrE spellings but have their own vocabularies. Oxford spelling, used by some publishers, is BrE with -ize endings.

Related abbreviations

More grammar and dictionary abbreviations

• ant. – Antonym
• arch. – Archaic
• art. – Article
• attrib. – Attributive
• Austral. – Australian
• aux. – Auxiliary (verb)
• Brit. – British
• colloq. – Colloquial
• compar. – Comparative
• conj. – Conjunction
• contr. – Contraction
• dat. – Dative

See all 93 grammar and dictionary abbreviations →

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