Some people claim there is a regional difference between these two words: that adapter is used in American English and adaptor in British English (and some people claim the opposite). ... Even further, some claim that a device can be an adapter or adaptor, but a person can only be an adapter.

What is correct adaptor or adapter?

Some people say that you can distinguish these two words by their meaning, but in truth, they mean the same thing. It is not widely observed, but the word adapter is more often used when referring to a person, and adaptor is used when referring to a mechanical device.

How do you spell adaptor in Australia?

If we check the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Oxford dictionary, adaptor is the primary spelling and adapter is listed as a secondary spelling. Even though both Australian authoritative references agree on the primary spelling, actual usage as shown by searching Google for sites ending in .