nouns - What is the preferred plural form of "bus"?


Busses, or perhaps buses


The OED states that both "buses" and "busses" are acceptable plural forms of "bus". Is one generally preferred over the other?



Answer



To be more precise, the citations in the OED’s entry for bus include 2 instances of busses and 9 of buses. In its own commentary, the OED uses buses. The British National Corpus records 1438 instances of buses and 10 of busses. The figures in the Corpus of Contemporary American English are 5139 and 116. I think that means you’re in good company if you use buses.


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