Spelling standard — Oxford spelling (en-GB-oxendict)

Status: Authoritative for the whole book. Every topic and every reference file follows the spelling rules on this page. Where any artifact disagrees, this page and spec/index.md win.

This book is written in Oxford spelling — British English that uses the -ize/-ization endings for the relevant Greek‑derived words, while keeping every other British convention. It is also called Oxford English Dictionary spelling or Oxford style, and it is the spelling implied by the IETF language tag en-GB-oxendict. It reflects that the -ize ending "corresponds more closely to the Greek etymon, ‑ίζω (‑ízō)."

Why Oxford spelling#

Oxford spelling is the official or de facto standard in the style guides of the international organizations of the United Nations System — including the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Labour Organization, the World Food Programme, the International Court of Justice, and UNESCO — and of all UN treaties and declarations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Other international bodies that adhere to it include the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Interpol, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Amnesty International, the World Economic Forum (WEF), and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). It is also the house style of academic publishers and journals including Nature, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press.

For a book whose centre of gravity is the UK NHS and social care but whose principles are internationally transferable — and which cites WHO, ISO/IEC and UN‑system sources throughout — Oxford spelling is the natural register: unmistakably British, yet aligned with the global standards bodies the book leans on.

The rule#

• Use -ize / -ization / -izable for the Greek‑derived family: organize, organization, prioritize, prioritization, standardize, standardization, realize, realization, recognize, recognizable, optimize, digitize, maximize, minimize, categorize, characterize, summarize, emphasize, utilize, harmonize, normalize, rationalize, anonymize, pseudonymize, randomize, authorize, centralize, specialize, industrialize, operationalize, incentivize, marginalize, scrutinize, criticize and the like (roughly 200 verbs and their derivatives).

Exceptions that keep -ise / -yse#

Oxford spelling is not a blanket "‑ise → ‑ize". These words keep -ise/-yse because they are not formed from the Greek -izo suffix — the ending is part of the root, or the word derives from another stem (e.g. Greek lysis):

‑yse (from lysis): analyse, analysed, analysing, analyser; paralyse; catalyse; dialyse.

‑ise as part of the root: advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disguise, enterprise, excise, exercise, franchise (and disenfranchise), improvise, incise, merchandise, premise, prise, promise, raise, revise, rise, supervise, surprise, televise, wise.

When in doubt, check whether the root drops cleanly to a Greek ‑iz verb (organ‑ize ✓) or whether the ‑ise is inseparable from the stem (comprom‑ise → not ‑ize).

British features that are KEPT (Oxford spelling is not American)#

Oxford spelling changes only the ‑ize family above. Everything else stays British:

Applying it to this repository (non‑negotiable mechanics)#

When converting or authoring, change spelling only in body prose and the book's own headings, titles and internal cross‑reference text. Never alter the following — they are copied verbatim:

1. URLs and link targets. Wikipedia article slugs and other URLs may contain British ‑isation spellings (e.g. …/wiki/Benefits_realisation_management). Changing them breaks the link. Protect every http(s)://… and every ](…) target.
2. Formal titles, journal‑article titles and reference citations. Leave the ## References and ## Key sources sections, and any cited document/report/programme title, exactly as published — e.g. the NHS "Digitising Social Care" programme keeps its spelling; the Wikipedia display text of an inline link keeps the article's own spelling.
3. Inline code and file paths. Anything in `backticks` — including topic filenames such as 03-10-emergency-preparedness-response.md — is left unchanged during prose conversion. When a filename genuinely needs to change (see below), rename the file and update every pointer in the same change.

Filenames follow Oxford spelling too. Topic slugs use the same ‑ize/‑ization forms as the prose — e.g. 02-02-work-prioritization.md and 06-02-benefits-realization-value.md, not the British ‑isation. Renaming a slug is a structural change: rename the file (with git mv) and update every pointer — the README.md table of contents, the manifest in spec/index.md (§4) and spec/README.md, and any inbound links — in the same commit, then re‑run the consistency gate. The slug still need not letter‑match the topic title (the book lets 03-10-… differ from "Topic 3.10"); Oxford spelling only governs the spelling of the words that do appear in the slug.

Definition of done (spelling)#

• No convertible Greek‑family ‑ise/‑isation word remains in body prose (organize/prioritize/standardize/realize/optimize/… all ‑ize).
• Every ‑yse word (analyse, paralyse) and every root ‑ise word (exercise, comprise, enterprise, promise, premise, surprise …) is untouched.
• All British ‑our/‑re/doubled‑l/programme/licence/‑ae‑oe spellings are intact.
• Every URL and link target is byte‑for‑byte identical to before conversion.
• ## References and ## Key sources sections and cited titles are unchanged.