up

[ʌp]

/[ʌp]/ adv

The verdict

“up” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,907) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,907
frequency rank, German
2,159
“U” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - nach oben

Corpus desk

Index DE-up · up · German

up · rank #1,907 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,907
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,159
  • PHOTO-FINISH Studenten

Nearest frequency peer: Studenten (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „up“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „up“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

up vs us
50% similar
up vs UV
0% similar
up vs USA
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for up
PropertyValue
Headwordup
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdverb
IPA[ʌp]
Letters2
Frequency rank#1,907
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „up“

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.upliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Studenten“ (#1,906), „Veranstaltung“ (#1,908), „steigt“ (#1,905). Unter 2,159 „U“-Lemmata liegt „up“ bei #1,907. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for up is neighbouring look-alikes ("us", "UV", …), not just typos; it is anadverb pronounced [ʌp]. Frequency #1,907 among 2,159 “U” headwords. Gloss: "nach oben".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for up, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "us", "UV", "USA", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is up, spelled U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    nach oben

Antonyms

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "up"?
"up" is spelled U-P. The IPA pronunciation is [ʌp].
What does "up" mean?
As an adverb, "up" means: nach oben
What words are commonly confused with "up"?
"up" is commonly confused with "us", "UV", "USA". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "up"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "up" is [ʌp]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "up" come from?
"up" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list