• 2-minute read
  • 20th October 2018

Word Choice: Curb vs. Kerb

The words ‘curb’ and ‘kerb’ sound exactly the same. However, they’re spelled differently and mean different things. And to make things more confusing, ‘curb’ is used differently in American English.

All of which means that it’s easy to get ‘curb’ and ‘kerb’ confused. To ensure your writing is always error free, then, check out our guide to how to use these terms correctly in British English.

Curb (Limit or Restrain)

As a verb, ‘curb’ means ‘limit or restrain something’. For example:

Police have increased patrols to curb vandalism.

The term ‘curb’ can also be a noun that refers to a limit or restraint placed on something, although this is less common. For instance:

You need to put a curb on your bad behaviour.

In British English, then, ‘curb’ always refers to a limit or restraint.

Kerb (Pavement Edge)

The word ‘kerb’ is always a noun and refers to the raised edge of a pavement or path. For example:

I nearly tripped on the kerb while crossing the road.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

This spelling is standard in British English (and in most varieties of English outside of North America). However, it is never used in American English.

The Word ‘Curb’ in American English

American English uses the spelling ‘curb’ for both limitations and the edge of a pavement (or ‘sidewalk’ if we’re going full American English here). If we were writing for an audience in the US, then, we would say:

I nearly tripped on the curb while crossing the road.

You’ll often see ‘curb’ used like this online. However, this would be incorrect in British English, where ‘curb’ always refers to a limit or restraint.

Curb or Kerb?

If you’re using British English, or writing for a British audience, it’s important to distinguish between ‘curb’ and ‘kerb’. The key is that the raised edge of a pavement or path is known as a ‘kerb’ in the UK. ‘Curb’, meanwhile, is typically a verb meaning ‘limit or restrain’.

In American English, the spelling ‘curb’ is correct for both definitions.

Curb = Limit or restrain

Kerb (British) = Raised edge of path or pavement

Comments (6)
Andrew Hopkins
19th August 2019 at 17:42
Would take issue with "kerb" & " curb" sounding the same. Being from the UK I have never heard anyone, other than younger folk brought up on US television, pronounce it "kurb. Only ever heard it pronounced "kErb" with an "eh" sound.
    Proofed
    20th August 2019 at 07:55
    Fair enough, Andrew, but they are standardly pronounced the same now (e.g. the pronunciation examples here and here). It probably depends on things like accent, etc., too.
June Perry
26th April 2020 at 11:30
In mid-nineteenth century England 'curb' was used where nowadays we would use 'kerb', in the contract for a builder to be making a road, for example.
    Proofed
    27th April 2020 at 09:56
    Yup. Variant spellings were much more common in the past, although 'kerb' has been used since the seventeenth century: https://www.etymonline.com/word/kerb
saltyolddog
17th April 2021 at 22:33
I am finding the current Google advertisement about supporting local businesses most annoying: It talks about "Curbside deliveries" whereas British English would have it as "Kerbside deliveries". Linguistically, British English speakers are watching our language being destroyed by an American English cultural imperalism driven by imported films and TV which promote American English rather than British English. On the other side, UK TV programs now refer to post-mortems as autopsies because they want to sell them to the US. My children talk about going to the "train station" rather than the "railway station" with which I am familiar. George Bernard Shaw once referred to the UK and the US as two cultures divided by a single language. That's becoming less and less true, to the detriment of British English.
    Alistair Sandilands
    19th April 2021 at 19:15
    I would agree with the above statement apart from the fact that you spell programme the American way!




Get help from a language expert.

Try our proofreading services for free.

More Writing Tips?
Trusted by thousands of leading
institutions and businesses

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing.