What are some more words that have an extra "U" ?

According to the fantasy book series Thursday Next, there was a shortage of the letter “U” so all written material in the United States was to be written without the traditional British “U” to combat the shortage.

Now we wait for someone who has the real answer! :)

flavour vs flavor
behaviour vs behavior
rumour vs rumor
honour vs honor
armour vs armor
neighbour vs neighbor
splendour vs splendor

Samuel Johnson’s famous dictionary (1755) went a long way toward standardising British spelling. Before that, it was pretty inconsistent, often showing more than one rendition of the same word within a single passage. The -our endings show the effect of the Norman conquest, which introduced French words and spellings to English terms.

Noah Webster’s English dictionary (1828) likewise brought standardization to American English, and there were some politics involved too, as he sought to simplify some words and also to deliberately promote variance from customary British forms.

Vacuum The others don’t really have an extra “u”...just a “u”. But I know what you mean. ;)

“Queue” as in: a line of people or vehicle, has an extra “u” and “e”.

uuencode

Many of them were already named above.

Tumor
Savour

You could count doughnut also maybe? Most Americans spell it donut.

The use of the u is British spelling. @Jeruba makes an interesting point that the use of u by the British was a result of the French influence following the Norman conquest.

American English takes out more than just u’s. We take out extra L’s and E’s. The beginning of text talk. Lol.

Adieu instead of I Do?

@seawulf575 They don’t mean the same thing.

@JLeslie you don’t appreciate @seawulf575‘s humor? Many single men would rather say Adieu instead of I Do.

@RedDeerGuy1 This isn’t something ululate over. Canadians use the extra U; Americans prefer a shorter vocabulary.

@JLeslie I know they don’t mean the same. They sound the same and as @zenvelo they can mean the exact opposite.

@seawulf575 I’ve never heard them used as opposites.

They don’t really sound the same, maybe with some accents?

The Q seemed to be about words that US English drops the U, not homophones.

I could be wrong of course.

@seawulf575 Adieu is pronounced əˈdyo͝o, and isn’t at all like I do.

@smudges @JLeslie it’s a pun, a play on words. you can say I Do! or Adieu (goodbye!).

^^I see. I actually had not read your answer above. I had not heard that phrase before, but I get it now.

@seawulf575 I understand the pun, but you wrote: “They sound the same…”

And they don’t, but based on what you wrote, I think you thought so. I guess I didn’t find it that funny and was focusing on pronunciation instead.

Senses of humour (humor) seem to be in short supply. Or maybe my sense of humor (humour) is not to your flavor (flavour). It’s amazing how intense your responses are. Should I get my armor (armour) for protection?

Intense? Really? No, very mild actually. But then, you should recognize intensity.

It is curious to me that the curiosity of this question fell by the wayside when I made a joke. I am honored that you bestow the honour of the disruptor onto me instead of on your neighbour.

Fuckour…

It’s simple…you said they sound the same, and they don’t. My “neighbor” didn’t assert that.

Curiouser and curioser.