Close up or closeup?
close up is an adjective meaning “In near proximity”; closeup is a noun meaning “Alternative form of close-up”. close up is written as two words and closeup as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between close up and closeup?
| close up | closeup | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | In near proximity A photographic (or other) image in which the subject is shown at a relatively large scale, and occupies most or all of the frame To close (remove a gap) completely or fully | Alternative form of close-up |
| Example | Some flowers close up at night to stay protected from the cold | none recorded |
| Forms | none | closeups |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkləʊsʌp/ /kləʊzˈʌp/ | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: close up and closeup 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 close up and closeup
close up
- 1
In near proximity
- 2
A photographic (or other) image in which the subject is shown at a relatively large scale, and occupies most or all of the frame
- 3
To close (remove a gap) completely or fully
Some flowers close up at night to stay protected from the cold
- 4
To move nearer together so that a gap is removed
The crowd closed up and I couldn't get through to the train
- 5
To enclose, confine
- 6
To shut a building or a business for a period of time
We finally managed to close up the shop for the night at about 10 o'clock
- 7
Of a cut or other wound: To heal
With stitches, the cut should close up in a week to ten days
- 8
To become less 'open' or communicative; to shrink back
to close up emotionally
closeup
- 1
Alternative form of close-up
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, close up or closeup?
close up is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; closeup about once in every 2 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 close up vs closeup?
“close up vs closeup” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“closeup vs close up”, “close up or closeup”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.