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Is the spelling disruptor or disrupter? - Australian spelling
The words disruptor and disrupter are very similar to the words adaptor and adapter.
You may even feel it is easy to then guess which is the primary spelling.
The Australian Oxford Dictionary and the Macquarie Oxford Dictionary both agree the primary spelling
is disrupter and the secondary spelling is disruptor.
The opposite of adaptor and adapter.
If you check the overseas online English dictionaries including the British Oxford and US Merriam Webster,
both agree the spelling disrupter is the primary spelling.
If however we check the usage in Australia for sites ending in .au using Google,
we see the overwhelming usage is disruptor, with a ratio of 8:1 to disrupter.
Checking government sites ending in .gov.au has a ratio of disruptor to disrupter as 3:1.
Far more people use the secondary spelling in Australia compared to those using the primary spelling.
This also appears to be true in the UK. Microsoft Office is no help as both spelling variations are
considered correct.
At this stage, all I can suggest is to stick to the primary spelling suggested by the authoritative references,
which in this case is disrupter. If anyone challenges you, at least you can refer them to the authoritative
references.
But do keep an eye on this one as the primary spelling may change in the future.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.
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