Disk or disc?

As we’ve just established when it should be program or programme, now seems a fitting time to ask: is it disk or disc? And is this another set up for a US/UK battle for spelling territory?

Um, no. There wouldn’t be much point. Although disk is considered the standard choice in the US and Canada (while disc is in the UK), the ‘k’ spelling – introduced in the seventeenth century – actually predates the ‘c’ version in the English language.

Admittedly, it was US company IBM who made disk the international go-to spelling for computer-related uses. So it’s definitely disk for magnetic storage devices: eg hard disk, floppy disk. But we can hardly fault them for that.

The ‘c’ spelling of disc is still with us where it refers to optical media (that which stores data digitally and is read by a laser, eg compact disc, digital versatile disc).

The definitive guide to transforming the writing of individuals and teams

GET YOUR FREE PDF COPY NOW

Author: Catie Holdridge

---

Catie joined Emphasis with an English literature and creative writing degree and a keen interest in what makes language work. Having researched, written, commissioned and edited dozens of articles for the Emphasis blog, she now knows more about the intricacies of effective professional writing than she ever thought possible.

She produced and co-wrote our online training programme, The Complete Business Writer, and these days oversees all the Emphasis marketing efforts. And she keeps office repartee at a suitably literary level.