up
adverb · adjective · noun · verb
Simple meaning
Indicating movement towards or location at a higher place or position.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhpIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adverb
Indicating movement towards or location at a higher place or position.
Spatially or metaphorically from a lower to a higher position
To or at a physically higher or more elevated position.
Away from the surface of the Earth or other planet; in opposite direction to the downward pull of gravity.
Indicating movement in any other direction visualised as "up".
To an upright or erect position.
adjective
Facing upwards.
On or at a physically higher level.
Headed or designated to go upward (as an escalator, stairway, elevator etc.) or toward (as a run-up).
Fitted or fixed at a high or relatively high position, especially on a wall or ceiling.
Raised; lifted.
Standing; upright.
noun
uncountable
The direction opposed to the pull of gravity.
countable
A positive thing, or a time or situation when things are going well.
An upstairs room of a two story house.
The northern of the two peninsulas that make up the US state of Michigan.
A state in northern India. Capital: Lucknow.
A person or company that is a potential client for a sale, but who has not been previously vetted.
verb
intransitiveoften in combination with another verb
To rise to a standing position; hence, by extension, to act suddenly; see also up and.
transitivecolloquial
To increase the level or amount of.
transitivecolloquial
To promote.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Indicating movement towards or location at a higher place or position.
Used this way, up is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use up
- “They moved the meeting date up.”adverb
- “He walked up and grabbed my lapels.”adverb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.