“practice” vs. “practise”
In American English, use "practice" for both noun and verb; in British English, use "practice" only as the noun and "practise" only as the verb — check which variety of English your document follows and apply it consistently.
practice
In American English, "practice" serves as both the noun and the verb — you practice the piano (verb) at your daily practice session (noun), and a doctor runs a medical practice (noun) while continuing to practice medicine (verb). American usage collapsed what was once a noun/verb spelling distinction into a single spelling for both roles, following the same pattern American English applies to "license" (both noun and verb) rather than keeping a separate "licence" spelling.
practise
In British (and most Commonwealth) English, "practise" is reserved specifically for the verb — you practise the piano, a lawyer practises law — while "practice" remains the noun, referring to the activity itself, a habit, or a professional's business (a solicitor's practice, common practice, out of practice). Both spellings ultimately trace back through Old French "practiser" to Latin "practicare" and Greek "praktike" (practical, fit for action), the same root that gives "practical" and "pragmatic."
The real distinction
This pair is a matter of regional convention rather than differing meaning, and it belongs to the same small family as "advice/advise" and "licence/license," where British English distinguishes noun from verb by spelling (the "-ice" ending signals a noun, the "-ise" ending signals a verb) while American English has simplified the pattern to a single spelling, "practice," for both roles. A British writer would say "I need to practise more" (verb) but "I need more practice" (noun), a distinction an American writer ignores entirely by using "practice" in both spots. This means the correct choice depends entirely on which variety of English a document is following, not on any difference in meaning between the words — a rare case among true homophone or near-homophone confusions where the two forms are, in the relevant dialect, simply not variant spellings of separate ideas but a single grammatical distinction some dialects keep and others have dropped. Style guides for international or mixed audiences typically recommend picking one national standard and applying it consistently throughout a document rather than mixing British and American conventions, since a text that uses "practice" as a verb in one paragraph and "practise" as a noun in another looks inconsistent rather than deliberately bilingual. Editors working across markets should flag this pair specifically during localization, since it's one of the most common overlooked differences between American and British house styles.
Examples with “practice”
- She has piano practice every afternoon after school.
- The doctor built a thriving private practice over two decades.
- It's common practice to double-check figures before submitting a report.
- He wanted more practice before the big audition.
- The team's morning practice ran longer than usual.
- Their business practice relied heavily on referrals.
- Regular practice improved her confidence on stage significantly.
- The firm's legal practice expanded into three new cities.
Examples with “practise”
- She practises the violin for an hour every evening.
- He practises law at a small firm in Manchester.
- They practise their lines together before every rehearsal.
- The doctor has practised medicine in the same village for years.
- You should practise regularly if you want to improve.
- The team practises on the pitch every Tuesday and Thursday.
- She practises yoga each morning before work.
- He practised his speech in front of the mirror.
Memory trick
Remember the American pattern first, since it's simpler: one spelling, "practice," covers both noun and verb, just like "advice" and "advise" collapse in casual speech (though not in spelling) for many speakers. For British English, borrow the memory trick already used for "advice/advise": the noun ends in "-ice" (like "ice," a solid, fixed thing — the noun), and the verb ends in "-ise" (matching the "-ise" of action verbs like "realise" and "organise" in British spelling). If you're writing for a British audience, ask whether the word is doing (verb, "-ise") or being (noun, "-ice") — for American audiences, the question doesn't even arise, since "practice" handles both.