Enrollment or Enrolment: Which Is Correct?
Enrollment or Enrolment: Which Is Correct?
If you are choosing between enrollment and enrolment, you can relax: neither is a misspelling. They are the same noun, spelled differently on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Enrollment, with two l’s, is the standard American spelling; enrolment, with one l, is the standard British spelling. They are pronounced identically, mean exactly the same thing — the act of signing up, or the number of people signed up — and the only genuine error you can make here is mixing the two spellings in a single document.
What the Dictionaries Say
The references divide neatly along regional lines, exactly as you’d expect from a transatlantic spelling pair:
- Cambridge Dictionary: headword enrollment, tagged explicitly as “US (UK enrolment)” — noun, countable or uncountable. Definition: “the act of putting yourself or someone else onto the official list of members of a class, college or university, or group.” Examples include “Enrollment during the school year is limited to about 40 students” and “We are accepting enrollments into trials for new cancer therapies.”
- Merriam-Webster (American): headword enrollment, defined around the act of enrolling — the American standard, with no qualifier attached, because in American English there is no competitor.
- Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: headword enrolment — the British form is the primary entry in a British dictionary, with enrollment noted as the American form.
- Collins: carries both, with the regional labelling made explicit.
Notice what no dictionary does: none of them calls either spelling an error, a variant of lesser standing, or informal. They are parallel standards. The meaning is identical in every respect — including the noun’s double life. The word can mean the act (“Enrollment is now open”) or the headcount (“The school’s enrollment is 2,000 students”). That second sense — the number of people enrolled — works in both spellings, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Pronunciation: UK and US
There is nothing to choose between the two in speech — they are homophones. Cambridge transcribes enrollment as /ɪnˈroʊl.mənt/ in American English and the noun generally as /ɪnˈrəʊl.mənt/ in British English: “in-ROHL-muhnt,” stress on the second syllable, with the standard American “oh” versus the British “oh” shading that distinguishes the two accents. The extra l in the American spelling is purely orthographic — no one pronounces a longer l, in either country. This is worth internalizing, because it means you can never hear which spelling someone is using; the difference exists only on the page.
The Full Family of Forms — Where the Real Trap Is
The noun is the easy part. The verb family is where writers actually go wrong, because the two varieties don’t differ everywhere — they differ only in the base form, the third-person singular, and the -ment noun:
| Form | British English | American English | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base verb | enrol | enroll | “You must enrol/enroll by Friday.” |
| 3rd-person singular | enrols | enrolls | “She enrols/enrolls in September.” |
| Present participle | enrolling | enrolling | “They are enrolling now.” (same!) |
| Past tense / participle | enrolled | enrolled | “He enrolled last year.” (same!) |
| Noun | enrolment | enrollment | “Enrolment/Enrollment is open.” |
Read that table carefully, because it contains the pair’s one genuine surprise: enrolling and enrolled are spelled identically in British and American English. British English doubles the l when adding the vowel-initial endings, just as it does in “travelling” and “cancelled.” So the most common real-world error — writing “enroled” with one l in a British document — is wrong in both varieties. If you remember nothing else from this article, remember the rhyme: the -ing and -ed always bring the double-l.
This pairing also makes the whole thing a close cousin of the verb pair enrol or enroll, which walks through the same family of forms in detail — genuinely worth a look if this article leaves you wanting the complete verb picture.
Why English Has Two Spellings
The split belongs to a small, well-documented family of British/American -l/-ll pairs. Noah Webster’s American spelling reforms regularized the doubling of final l in a handful of verbs, and enrol/enroll is one of the results — the British base form kept its single l while the American form doubled it. But note the quirk that makes this pair trickier than most: with enrol/enroll, the British base form kept its single l while the American form doubled it, which is the opposite of the more famous doubling pattern in words like travelling/traveling and labelled/labeled — where British English doubles and American English doesn’t. That inversion is exactly why the “double the l when American” instinct that serves you well for “traveling” will betray you here if you apply it backwards.
Correct vs. Incorrect
- ✓ (US) “Course enrollment opens on Monday.”
- ✓ (UK) “Course enrolment opens on Monday.”
- ✓ (US) “The university reported record enrollment this fall — 18,400 students.”
- ✓ (UK) “The university reported record enrolment this autumn — 18,400 students.”
- ✓ “She completed her enrollment/enrolment in under ten minutes.” (either, by audience)
- ✗ “Please enrol early; enrollment closes Friday.” → ✓ (BrE) “…enrolment closes Friday.” (base form and noun must match)
- ✗ “He enroled last spring.” → ✓ “He enrolled last spring.” (double l everywhere)
- ✗ “I need to enrolment today.” → ✓ “I need to enrol/enroll today.” (the noun can’t do the verb’s job)
Common Mistakes
1. Mixing the families in one document. This is the single most common error, and it’s a proofreading failure rather than a knowledge failure: “enrol” in the introduction, “enrollment” in the conclusion. Pick the family your audience expects and hold it.
2. Writing “enroled” or “enroling” with one l. Wrong in both British and American English. The inflected forms double the l everywhere — enrolling, enrolled.
3. Writing “enrole.” The -e ending is never correct in any variety. The word is enrol or enroll, never with a final -e.
4. “Correcting” the other variety’s spelling. Changing a British colleague’s “enrolment” to “enrollment” (or vice versa) isn’t a fix — it’s introducing an inconsistency with their audience’s expectations. Regional spellings aren’t errors.
5. Using the noun as a verb. “I need to enrolment today” treats the noun as an action. The noun is the thing (or the number); enrol/enroll is the action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is “enrolment” a misspelling of “enrollment”?
No. Enrolment is the standard British spelling, and enrollment the standard American spelling. Neither is a misspelling of the other — dictionaries on both sides of the Atlantic list their own form as the headword.
Which spelling should I use?
Match your audience: enrolment for British (and usually Australian, New Zealand, and Indian) readers; enrollment for American readers. For international audiences either is fine — the requirement is consistency, not a particular choice.
Is it “enrolled” or “enroled”?
Enrolled — in both varieties. “Enroled” with one l is wrong in British and American English alike.
Does “enrollment” also mean the number of students?
Yes. The noun has two senses: the act of enrolling (“Enrollment is open”) and the total headcount (“Enrollment is up 6% this year”). Both senses apply to both spellings.
What about “enrollee”?
Enrollee — a person who is enrolled — keeps the single l in its base in every variety. It’s a less common word, mostly found in American administrative writing (“plan enrollees”).
Final Takeaway
Enrollment or enrolment? Both — the first is American, the second British, and neither is wrong. Match the noun to your base form (enrol → enrolment; enroll → enrollment), remember that enrolling and enrolled double the l in every country, and keep one family per document. That’s the whole puzzle.
