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The English language, being a amalgamation of several predecessors, has many strange spelling rules. Some of these rules, however, vary from one dialect of English to another. A well-known example of this is the spelling of words that end with an "e" and an "r": in America English, the common spellings are "meter", "liter" and "center", while other forms of English use the spellings "metre", "litre" and "centre".
I noticed the other day that the words subject to this particular change all seem to end in end in "ter"/"tre". Meanwhile, words like "acre" and "mediocre"--words that end in "cre"--have the same spelling in all variants of English that I know of.
Does anyone know if this is a common occurrence in English, or if some obscure spelling rule applies? I'm curious to learn more about it.
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[Last updated: 2023-01-04]