Adviser vs Advisor
Compare it Versus > Grammar > Difference between adviser and advisor
Published in October 2015, updated January 2023
Edited by Mary S., high school English teacher
Contents
What is the meaning of adviser or advisor?
Confusing. They seem very similar and well, that is because they are.
Is there a difference between adviser and advisor?
After all, the dictionary treats both words on an equal scale since they mean the same thing. The words refer to a person who provides advice or counsel to someone who asks for it. Or even more simply, a person or individual who gives advice.
Therefore, you cannot be held as being wrong for using either of them because interchanging one with another is well within the norm and there is no strict difference between the two terms.
Both versions are ok.
So which is correct, adviser or advisor?
Adviser and advisor are both correct in their written and spoken form. If both are correct and mean the same thing, does this mean that replacing one vowel with another is truly insignificant?
Pretty much, yes.
If you dig a little deeper into the history of these two words, you would find that adviser came a bit before advisor. Advisor has gained some significant popularity in recent decades and in particular some areas of the world.
And that adviser is the preferred spelling in some quarters, but only just.
Another difference we found is that adviser is sometimes used in common terms for anyone that gives advice whereas advisor is used for a professional title, for example a financial advisor. But even this is not uniform across the board and each company and business seems to make a different decision on it.
The use of advisor and adviser will also depend a lot on where you are from in the world.
Global distribution of the two words
Frequency of appearance of the words adviser and advisor also depends on the part of the globe that you might be in. Adviser is preferred in UK and countries that follow the norms of British English while advisor is more prevalent in USA and Canada.
Ultimately, it is important for any reader or writer to understand that English grammar is based on certain rules that are subject to modification with passage of time. And that while the basic rules are preserved, it is the usage that varies from one century to another or even one country to another.
Popularity of the search terms online
When searching for the exact term “adviser” on Google, the search engine returns about 172 million search results.
In comparison, searching for the exact term “advisor” returns about 811 million results.
This suggests that “advisor” is the more commonly used online. Keep in mind the possible North America bias when searching on the search engine Google.
Do you have anything to add to our advisor vs adviser discussion?
Which term do you prefer and why?
References
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary, accessed in January 2023, link to Merriam-Webster page
- Google search engine for terms adviser and advisor, searches in December 2022
- Wikipedia, Adviser information page