Clean up or cleanup?
clean up is a verb meaning “To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy”; cleanup is a noun meaning “The act of cleaning or tidying something”. Use clean up as a verb and cleanup as a noun. clean up is written as two words and cleanup as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between clean up and cleanup?
| clean up | cleanup | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun |
| Meaning | To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy colloquialTo become clean, handsome, smart in appearance, e.g. for a special occasion, especially when it is out of character to be seen as such | The act of cleaning or tidying something The act of finishing something off |
| Example | Clean up your room | the cost of environmental cleanup after an oil spill |
| Forms | none | cleanups |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈkliːnʌp/ [ˈkʰliːˌnʌp] |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 2.9 times per million words |
Sources: clean up and cleanup in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of clean up and cleanup
clean up
- 1
To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy
Clean up your room
- 2
Alternative spelling of cleanup
- 3
colloquialTo become clean, handsome, smart in appearance, e.g. for a special occasion, especially when it is out of character to be seen as such
He sure cleans up nice
- 4
To make something less corrupt or unseemly
clean up one's act
- 5
To make a large profit; to win by a large margin, or to win a large amount, especially in gambling. Also clean house
Man, he sure cleaned up last night at the blackjack table
- 6
To intervene in a fight between two players at low health and easily kill both of them or the winner
cleanup
- 1
The act of cleaning or tidying something
the cost of environmental cleanup after an oil spill
- 2
The act of finishing something off
- 3
Fourth in the batting order; a cleanup hitter
Jones will be batting cleanup in tonight's game
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, clean up or cleanup?
clean up is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; cleanup 2.9 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search clean up vs cleanup?
“clean up vs cleanup” is searched about 320 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“cleanup vs clean up”, “clean up or cleanup”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.