Busses, a Plural of Bus (Transportation Means)

Question

My feel about the plural form of the word bus (transportation means) 'busses' is it's only used in North America, and rarely at that. Am I correct? I came across the usage in a book written by my favorite author thirty five years ago, and that was the only time I've ever seen it.
I just want to know if you would use it in what level of writing, and, if you don't use it yourself, if you would accept it in what level of reading.

(Please let me know which regional English you speak. Thanks)

Hiro

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Your question is hardly worth an independent survey, Hiro-- just go with the dictionaries:

bus noun ( VEHICLE )
/b?s/ n [C] (plural buses or US ALSO busses)

HSS · Answer

Hi, MM. How are you? Fine, I hope.

How widely is it used in the U.S., though? I seldom see it used. Could I conclude it is rarely used even in the U.S.?

Thanks, MM.

Hiro

Mister Micawber · Answer

All we can do, really, is check the corpora (these could either be plural nouns or 3rd personal present singular verbs):

Corpus of Comtemporary American English:

buses - 5028 instances
busses - 115 instances

Ms Google:

buses - About 128,000,000 results
busses - About 17,400,000 results

Keep in mind, however, that this is nothing more than a spelling variation: hardly worth worrying about, since both are accepted.

Busses, a Plural of Bus (Transportation Means)

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