Spell it cancellation, with two Ls, in both American and British English. Cancelation with one L is a real dictionary variant, but it’s rare, and no major US style guide prefers it.
That catches many American writers off guard, because the verb drops an L: you write canceled and canceling. The difference between cancellation and cancelation comes from the word’s history, not from a spelling rule you missed.
What US Dictionaries and Style Guides List for the Noun
Every dictionary below puts cancellation first. Each one also lists the one-L form, so it isn’t a typo. It’s just the less common choice.
| Source | How it lists the noun |
| Merriam-Webster | Cancellation, with cancelation marked “less commonly” |
| American Heritage | Cancellation, also cancelation |
| Oxford Learner’s | Cancellation, with cancelation as a US variant |
| Britannica Learner’s | Cancellation, also US cancelation |
| Dictionary.com | Cancellation, or cancelation |
Style guides are stricter than dictionaries. They pick one form and tell you to stick with it.
- AP style: The AP Stylebook uses one L in cancel, canceled, and canceling, but two in cancellation.
- Salesforce: Its documentation style guide lists canceled, canceling, and cancellation, and says never to write cancelation.
- Google developer docs: The Google style guide tells writers to use the first spelling in Merriam-Webster. That gives you cancellation.
One writing-tips site, Proofed, tells American writers to use cancelation. None of the dictionaries or style guides above support that advice.
The spelling stays the same for every meaning of the noun:
- The clinic charges $40 for a cancellation made less than 24 hours before your appointment.
- Noise cancellation on these earbuds works best on airplanes.
- In the fraction 6/9, the cancellation of the common factor 3 leaves 2/3.
Why the Noun Kept Its Double L
Most explanations point to the -ation ending or to which syllable is stressed. The dates tell a simpler story.
| When | What happened |
| Latin | The source word is cancellātiō, from a verb meaning “to cross out.” The double L is already there. |
| 1535 | Merriam-Webster’s first known use of cancellation in English. |
| 1828 | Noah Webster’s American dictionary pushes simpler spellings, including not doubling a final unstressed L. |
| 1913 | Webster’s revised dictionary defines Cancellation as the act of “canceling.” Both spellings sit in one line. |
Dictionary.com traces the verb back to a Latin word for latticed bars. Picture a grid of lines drawn through a page to cross it out.
Webster’s reform changed the endings English adds to a verb, like -ed and -ing. The noun had been in English for nearly 300 years by then, double L included. It kept that spelling.
You can see the split in Webster’s 1913 entry. The headword has two Ls, and its own definition uses one-L canceling. It’s the same pairing AP uses today.
Canceled, Canceling, and the Cancelable Surprise
The verb is where US and UK spelling really part ways.
| Form | US English | UK English |
| Base verb | cancel | cancel |
| Past tense | canceled | cancelled |
| -ing form | canceling | cancelling |
| Noun | cancellation | cancellation |
So an American writer mixes one L and two Ls in the same sentence, and that’s correct:
- The coach canceled practice, but the cancellation never reached the team group chat.
- Your subscription was canceled on May 3, and we’ve emailed the cancellation notice.
A past-tense form used as a describing word follows the verb. In US English, a canceled check is proof of payment.
The word for “able to be canceled” breaks the pattern you’d expect. Merriam-Webster says cancellable, with two Ls, is the more common spelling, and cancelable is less common. By that count, a cancellable lease is the safer spelling in prose.
Spelling It in Code: Match the API
In software, the spelling isn’t a style choice. A property or class name has to be typed exactly as the platform defines it, even if it clashes with your house style.
| Where you’re writing | Spelling used | Example |
| Web pages (DOM events) | One L, adjective | event.cancelable |
| Web audio settings | Two Ls, noun | echoCancellation |
| .NET | Two-L noun, one-L verb in the docs | CancellationToken |
| Python | British two-L past tense | asyncio.CancelledError |
| US federal notices | Two-L noun, one-L verb | EPA cancellation orders |
The web is the odd case. Prose prefers cancellable, but the browser property is cancelable, so you write if (event.cancelable) with one L.
Microsoft’s .NET docs follow the AP pattern. They describe CancellationToken as signaling that operations should be canceled, with two Ls in the name and one in the verb. Code like token.IsCancellationRequested keeps the noun’s double L.
Python went British. Its asyncio.CancelledError is raised when a task has been cancelled, double L and all.
Government writing follows AP too. An EPA notice from February 2026 runs under the heading “Cancellation Order” and states that the listed products “are canceled.”
Is the One-L Spelling Gaining Ground?
A little. In Google Books’ American English data, cancelation made up less than 1 percent of uses around 2000. By 2022 it had climbed to about 6 percent.
| Year | Share spelled cancelation |
| 1937 | about 13% (its peak) |
| 1980 | under 1% |
| 2000 | under 1% |
| 2022 | about 6% |
Even after that rise, cancellation still outnumbers it about 15 to 1 in American books. Scanned books contain some errors, so read these figures as a trend, not an exact count.
Web text points the same way. A sample from Sapling shows a 91 to 9 preference for cancellation in the United States.
Keeping One Document Consistent
Mixed spellings in one document look like mistakes, even when each form is technically allowed. Use this list before you publish:
- Choose US or UK verb forms. Use canceled/canceling or cancelled/cancelling, not both.
- Keep the noun at two Ls in either style.
- Leave code names alone. Don’t “fix” CancelledError or cancelable to match your prose.
- Check fixed phrases: cancellation policy, cancellation fee, notice of cancellation.
- Write the plural as cancellations, with no apostrophe.
- Search the file for “cancelation” and decide whether each one is a quote or a slip.
Here’s how a mixed sentence gets fixed for a US reader:
- Incorrect: Our cancelation policy changed after we cancelled your plan.
- Correct: Our cancellation policy changed after we canceled your plan.
For anything people will read, write cancellation with two Ls, even right next to one-L canceled. Keep cancelation for quoting someone else’s text, and in code, copy the platform’s spelling letter for letter.
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I’m Hazel, and I studied BSC English at GCUF. I focus on explaining word meanings in simple, clear language that anyone can understand. My goal is helping readers grasp everyday English, confusing terms, and slang used in real conversations and social media. I believe language learning works best when definitions connect to actual life situations. Through careful research and straightforward explanations, I make vocabulary accessible for students, learners, and anyone curious about how English really works in daily use.