The Short Truth: both historic and historical are correct.
✅ Historic
Important, famous, or likely to be remembered in history (a big moment).
✅ Historical
Related to the past, history, or the study of history (the general adjective).
❌ Mix-Up
Using historic as a blanket substitute for historical (or the other way around) can change the meaning.
If you want the safe choice: historical fits most neutral “about history” uses.
People mix up historic and historical because they share the same base idea: history. The difference is mainly about weight and tone.
- Part of Speech: Adjectives
- Main Contrast: Importance vs. Relation
- Common Pair: a/an + historic
- Typical Default: historical
Table of Contents
Which Spelling Is Correct?
- ✅ Correct Historic
- Important in a way that feels “worth remembering.” It carries a big-moment vibe.
- ✅ Correct Historical
- Connected to history or the past in a neutral, descriptive way. It’s the workhorse adjective.
A clean way to remember it: historic adds importance, while historical adds connection to the past.Source-1✅
Meaning In Real Use
- Historic: used when the writer is pointing at significance (a turning point, a moment people will talk about later).
- Historical: used for facts, records, and anything that’s simply “from the past” (historical records, historical research).
- ❌ Saying “historic” for something that is merely “old” can sound overdramatic.
Why The Mix-Up Happens
These two adjectives are basically siblings. Over time, they’ve been used interchangeably, and even today you’ll still see that overlap in polished writing. Still, in most modern contexts they’ve settled into separate roles: historical for general “about history” meaning, and historic for “important in history.”Source-2✅
A small twist: some dictionaries even list a sense of historical that can mean “famous in history.” That’s why you might read “historical moment” in places where “historic moment” also feels natural.
Where Confusion Shows Up Most
- Events: “historic event” implies significance; “historical event” can sound like a category label.
- Places: “historic building” often means recognized importance; “historical building” can sound more like “connected to history” without saying it’s special.
- Writing Tone: historic naturally feels more “headline-ish,” while historical feels more “reference-ish.”
Pronunciation and the H Sound
The H in both words is typically pronounced in modern English, which is why a historic is the common choice. You may still hear an historic (or see it in older writing), but it’s usually a style choice rather than a rule.Source-3✅
| Word | UK | US | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| historic | /hɪˈstɒr.ɪk/ | /hɪˈstɔːr.ɪk/ | Shorter ending, same hi-STOR- core.Source-4✅ |
| historical | /hɪˈstɒr.ɪ.kəl/ | /hɪˈstɔːr.ɪ.kəl/ | Extra syllable at the end (-i-kəl).Source-5✅ |
Word Origin and Word Parts
Both words are built from the same base: history. In English, you can see that base as histor- inside historic and historical. The deeper root of history goes through Middle English and French to Latin historia, and further back to Greek, where it carried the sense of inquiry or knowledge gained from asking questions.Source-6✅
What The Endings Suggest
-ic and -ical are both common adjective endings in English. In this pair, the shorter historic ended up carrying the “momentous” sense more strongly, while historical became the broad, everyday “about history” form.
Word Family and Related Forms
If you’re scanning text fast, it helps to recognize the family around these words. Some are neutral and academic; some carry a more public feel. Spotting the ending often tells you the tone.
- historically (adverb): “in the past” or “as history shows.”
- historic (adjective): importance-forward.
- historical (adjective): study/record-forward.
- historian (noun): person who studies/writes history.
- prehistory (noun): time before written records.
- historic preservation (phrase): protecting important places.
- historical fiction (phrase): fiction set in the past.
- make history (phrase): do something memorable.
Common Misspellings Table
Most issues here aren’t true spelling mistakes; they’re choice mistakes. Still, a few real misspellings pop up in drafts, especially around adverbs.
| What You Mean | Best Fit | Example (Neutral) | Common Slip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Important, memorable, likely to be remembered | ✅ historic | A historic discovery changed how we think. | ❌ historical (can sound like “just from the past”) |
| Connected to history, records, research, the past in general | ✅ historical | We reviewed the historical records carefully. | ❌ historic (adds “big moment” energy) |
| Adverb form meaning “in the past / by history” | ✅ historically | It has been historically used in research. | ❌ historicly (misspelling) |
| Article before “historic” in modern pronunciation | ✅ a historic | It was a historic moment for the team. | ❌ an historic (older/style choice; less common) |
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Is one of them more correct than the other?
Nope. Historic and historical are both correct; they just carry different meaning and tone.
Can “historical” describe something important?
Sometimes, yes. Some dictionaries allow historical to mean “famous in history,” but historic signals importance more directly.
Is “an historic” wrong?
It’s not automatically wrong, but it’s usually less common today because the H is typically pronounced. You’ll see it as a style choice in some writing.
Is “historic building” different from “historical building”?
Often, yes. Historic tends to imply recognized significance, while historical can simply mean “connected to history” without claiming it’s especially important.
What about “historic” vs “historical” in headlines?
Historic is naturally punchier and signals a “big moment.” Historical reads more neutral, like a label for background or context.
Do UK and US English treat them differently?
The core meaning split is the same. Differences show up more in style and the occasional choice of a vs an before the words.