Realise or Realize?

[megapixels]

Seems obvious which one is correct, but DD (Year 4) was doing a worksheet which had some "dictionary work". She had to look up 'realise' and there was no such word in the Oxford English Dictionary for Schools! It listed 'realize', but I thought that was the American version?

Well I thought the 'z' was an American spelling too and the 's' the UK English version. What is wrong with the world!!!

Yes, realise is the UK version, realize is the USA version, surely.

if you scroll down this article there is a bit on ize and ise

It has become common to use the z rather than the s. It is just an example of common usage becoming the norm.

in return can I have your opinion on this?

Looked it up on OED online and it gives Realize as the main spelling and gives Realise as a variant .

The schools dictionary doesn't even mention realise.

I'm not American, so realise. Unless I was playing Scrabble and my z was on a triple letter....

HMC, I agree with you.

What is this tosh? I will continue to use the ise spelling and teach it also.

Yes megapixels - the explanation for that is in the article that I linked. It is by no means undisputed

I cringe when I see a "z" when there should be an "s" but common usage takes over.

Thank you hmc. I never realised (or realized) that.

From hmc's link, for anyone interested,
British English using -ize is known as Oxford spelling, and is used in publications of the Oxford University Press, most notably the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as other authoritative British sources. The OED lists the -ise form separately, as "a frequent spelling of -IZE...", and refuses to list the -ise spellings even as alternatives in the individual entries for words such as "realize".

...and also this paragraph which reflects that it is an area of contention:

"Other references, including Fowler's Modern English Usage, now give prominence to the -ise suffix over -ize.[61] The Cambridge University Press has long favoured -ise.[61] Perhaps as a reaction to the ascendancy of American spelling, the -ize spelling is now rarely used in the UK mass media and newspapers, to the extent that it is often incorrectly regarded as an Americanism.[57] The ratio between -ise and -ize stands at 3:2 in the British National Corpus.[62] The -ise form is standard in leading publications such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Economist. The Oxford spelling (which can be indicated by the registered IANA language tag en-GB-oed), and thus -ize, is used in many British-based academic publications, such as Nature, the Biochemical Journal and The Times Literary Supplement. In Australia and New Zealand -ise spellings strongly prevail; the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, among other sources, gives the -ise spelling first. The -ise form is preferred in Australian English at a ratio of about 3:1 according to the Macquarie Dictionary. Conversely, Canadian usage is essentially like American.[63]"

I think I am getting old! - am overly concerned with such things these days

Oh but it is an Amercanisation Prolesworth - it is!

No it isn't!

Confused - you will be

Goes to be - brain befuddled and no clearer

'bed'

I'm really old (well nearly 48) and I remember that when I was in primary school we used the -ize endings but over time this changed to -ise so as far as I'm concerned the -ise is a modern variation! The Americans kept with the -ize ending thus the assumption that it is an Americanism. I'm pretty sure my mum still uses the -ize. However, as the UK seems to be moving towards all things American, I'm not surprised to see that the -ize ending is coming back into fashion. My own dcs laugh at me when I say lorry instead of truck. They often say movie and cab. They'll just about accept film but laugh even more when I say pictures!

Haven't made it to bed yet - am feeling rather unnerved and out of sorts to discover it is not an Americanism!....crikey!

Longtime - you are NOT really old! When you get to my age...

I detest the ize spelling. However, my 1978 Concise Oxford Dictionary lists it as the main spelling with ise as an alternative. My 2001 Concise Oxford Dictionary also has ize as the main spelling and still has ise as an alternative but seems to downgrade it a little. I also have a 1978 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2 volumes!) which doesn't recognise the ise spelling at all.

-ise and -ize are both acceptable UK spellings, although -ize is used in US English as standard.

I detest the -ize spelling too because Webster introduced it only to make American spelling different from British, in the spirit of US independence, rather than make learning to spell easier.

Now they use -ize as a suffix (real - realize) but still have the main -se ending for 'wise, rise, devise, compromise, chose, rose'.
Sadly, this stupid act of nationalism has made the Brits hate sensible American changes, like 'center, theater, traveled' too.