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I do have an Oxford English Dictionary to hand right now. It clearly states that the word is spelt 'realise'. There are no other similar words, even when I look further down the page!

How are other words spelt in your particular dictionary? Look up the words 'catalogue' or 'axe' for example to see how they spell them. If they are not spelt this way, you could possibly have an American version of the OED.

The traditional English spelling rules depended on the words origin. I just googled and the first page came up with the following:

[quote]To summarize, in modern French, the suffix has become "iser" for words derived from the Greek such as "baptiser, ?vang?liser and organiser" as well as for those formed from the Latin such as "civiliser, cicatriser, humaniser". On this basis, historically, some have chosen the spelling "ise" for all of these words in English, while others have reserved "ise" for those derived from Latin and "ize" for those from Greek, such as "analyze or theorize". The origins of some words ending in the "ize" sound have nothing to do with Greek and have thus remained exempt from the controversy. For example, the following are always spelled with "ise": advertise, advise, apprise, chastise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, disenfranchise, disguise, enterprise, excise, exercise, improvise, supervise, surmise, surprise.[/quote]

....and the following gives reasons why 'ize' is used in the Oxford English Dictionary spelling. (the dictionary does indicate that 'ise' is an alternative, with 'ize' just being a preference, not a rule):

[quote]Sign of the Times
These are all matters for linguists, of course. The fact is that in the modern world, the "ize" suffix became established in America and Canada while "ise" took hold in Great Britain and Australia. Americans grow up writing "ize" and most Brits are accustomed to "ise". However, observant readers will soon find some inconsistencies here. Although most British book publishers and newspapers use "ise", a few influential publishing houses in England prefer the "ize" spelling. The Oxford University Press, publishers of many dictionaries and books on the English language, and the Cambridge University Press, publishers of the Encyclopedia Britannica, use "ize". Even the venerable Times newspaper was long a hold-out for "ize" but apparently switched to "ise" overnight in the mid-1980s. To add to the confusion, the Times Literary Supplement, a separate publication, prints "ize" spelling not only in articles contributed by American writers, but throughout the entire magazine.

In international business, it seems that "anything goes". Nowadays, the European Commission may be the closest thing we have to an academy. The translation service of the Commission advocates "ise" for the reason that it avoids questions of exceptions (see above). Etymological purists notwithstanding, this is probably the most convenient solution for non-native speakers. Meanwhile, you will find that most company Web sites use "ize" spelling, so once again, technology is making its mark on the language and it looks like spelling will remain a matter of choice for some time to come.[/quote]

A lot of small, pocket-style dictionaries do use colloquial spellings and in those the word will be spelt "realise".

The point I am making is that the proper formal English form is "realize" and that ..ize is the correct formal English form of several words that are ofen commonly spelt ....ise.

The dictionary I am using was an expensive one bought specifically for Masters' Degree studies.

The following link is from the Oxford Dictionary web site. If a search is carried out for "realise", then the word "realize" is returned.



Use the following "Search" box (not the one at the top of the page, but rather the one on the right side, lower down.

That was really interesting Warren. Thanks for that.

It wasn't a rant by any means.