In British English, kerb is reserved for the raised stone edge of a pavement, while curb is used for restraining or holding something back. Remember it as: the road edge gets the "k", the self-control sense keeps the "c".
The core difference
Kerb names the physical edge of a pavement in British English, while curb is the verb and noun for restraint, used everywhere including Britain.
- kerb — the raised edge of a pavement where it meets the road: He parked the car close to the kerb.
- curb — to control or hold something back: The government introduced measures to curb inflation.
How to tell them apart
Both words come from the same French root, courbe or courber, meaning "bend" or "curve" — the raised stone edge of a street was seen as a curved boundary. British English later split the spelling in two: "kerb" stayed for the physical structure, while "curb" kept the older spelling for the figurative sense of restraint, a split American English never made, keeping "curb" for both.
The mix-up shows up most in British motoring and parking contexts: a UK driving guide will warn you not to scrape your wheel on the kerb, while the same guide talks about measures to curb speeding. Writers used to American English often default to "curb" for the pavement edge too, which reads as incorrect in British text.
