How to Spell Resume: Resume, Résumé or Resumé, and When

By Mustafa Tarabya, founder of CVBooster · Published 2026-10-25 · Updated 2026-10-25

6 min read

Resume for a job can be spelled three ways, resume, résumé or resumé, and all three are correct, but the plain spelling "resume" is the safest choice for applications in the United States and Canada. The one rule that matters more than the accents is consistency: pick one form and use it everywhere in the same application. Dictionary.com says the accent marks "are not required and it is better to avoid using them". Six correctly written examples follow. Written by Mustafa Tarabya, who hired for his own company, read every application himself and now writes CVBooster's guides.

You have spent ten minutes deciding whether a document about your entire career needs two tiny marks over the e. The person reading it will spend about as long on the whole page. Use the plain spelling and spend the ten minutes on your first bullet.

How to spell resume in a real application

Here is one application with the plain spelling used the same way in every place the word appears.

The word appears four times, spelled the same way four times. That is the whole standard an employer will notice.

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The three spellings, and what each dictionary says

Résumé, with two accents. The French original. The Oxford Advanced American Dictionary lists the noun under résumé and gives resumé and resume as accepted alternatives, defining it as "a written record of your education and the jobs you have done, that you send when you are applying for a job".

Resume, no accents. The most common spelling on American job sites and in job adverts. Dictionary.com gives the noun meaning as "a brief written account of personal, educational, and professional qualifications and experience, as that prepared by an applicant for a job."

Resumé, one accent on the last e. Accepted by the dictionaries above, but the least common of the three.

Résume, an accent on the first e only. Not a correct spelling. If you use accents, you need the final one.

Why the plain spelling is usually the better choice

• It is what American employers write. Most US job postings use "resume", so matching their spelling is the safe default.
• It survives every system. Accented letters can turn into odd symbols in older applicant tracking systems, plain text emails or file names on another computer.
• It is consistent by default. No accents means no risk of mixing résumé and resume in the same letter.

The one case for the accents is context. If your sentence could read as the verb, "resume" meaning to continue, the accents remove the doubt. Dictionary.com explains the difference in pronunciation: the verb sounds like "ri-zoom", the noun like "rez-oo-mey". Cambridge Dictionary shows how common the verb is, with examples such as "The talks are due to resume today."

How to spell resume in a header and file name

You do not need to write the word on the resume at all. Our guide to the resume header shows what belongs at the top instead.

Resume spelling in a cover letter

Resume, CV and other words for the same thing

In the US and Canada a "resume" is the one or two page summary you send for most jobs, and a "CV" is the longer academic document. In the UK, Ireland, Australia and much of the world, "CV" covers both. Our page on CV vs resume explains which one to send, and another word for resume lists the other names you will see in adverts.

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The spelling mistakes that matter more

Nobody rejects an applicant for "resume" without accents. Recruiters do notice a misspelled company name, a wrong job title, or "manger" where "manager" should be. Spellcheck misses all three, because they are real words or proper names. Our guide to resume proofreading lists the errors to hunt for.

CVBooster checks your resume against the job posting, including the job title and the words the advert uses: filling any of the 99 templates is free after you sign in, with the ATS score and gap list; the PDF and Word download is Pro.

For how to write the numbers in your bullets, see the abbreviation for million on a resume.

Frequently asked questions

How do you spell resume for a job?

Write "resume", "résumé" or "resumé". All three are correct for the job document. In the United States and Canada "resume" without accents is the most common and the safest, because it matches most job adverts and never breaks in software. Whichever you choose, use it the same way everywhere.

Is it résumé or resume?

Both are correct. Résumé keeps the French accents and is common in formal writing and in Canada. Resume is the everyday American spelling and the one most employers use in job postings. Dictionary.com says the accent marks are not required and that it is better to avoid them.

Do you need accents on resume?

No. The accents are optional. Use them only if you prefer the formal look or the employer's advert uses them, and then use both accents, not just one. If you are unsure, leave them out, because plain letters never turn into odd symbols in email or tracking software.

How do you pronounce resume?

The job document is pronounced "REZ-oo-may". The verb meaning to continue, as in "the meeting will resume at two", is pronounced "ri-ZOOM". They are spelled the same in plain English, which is the main reason some writers add accents to the noun.

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