Lock down or lockdown?
lock down is a noun meaning “Alternative form of lockdown”; lockdown is a noun meaning “The confinement of people in their own rooms (e.g., in a school) or cells (in a…”. lock down is written as two words and lockdown as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between lock down and lockdown?
| lock down | lockdown | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | To secure (something) To blockade and lock (e.g. a building or campus) so as to prevent ingress or egress; to make the occupants (of an area) stay locked indoors for their safety | The confinement of people in their own rooms (e.g., in a school) or cells (in a prison), or to their own homes or areas (e.g., in the case of a city- or… USA contrivance to fasten logs together in rafting |
| Example | Police have the area locked down until the situation is all-clear | The rafts were made up of strings of logs about seventeen feet wide, held together by poles across them. Each log was pinned to the poles… |
| Forms | lock-downs | lockdowns |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈlɒkˌdaʊn/ /ˈlɑkˌdaʊn/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 3.3 times per million words |
Sources: lock down and lockdown 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 lock down and lockdown
lock down
- 1
Alternative form of lockdown
- 2
To secure (something)
- 3
To blockade and lock (e.g. a building or campus) so as to prevent ingress or egress; to make the occupants (of an area) stay locked indoors for their safety
Police have the area locked down until the situation is all-clear
- 4
To limit the use of (a computer network) to only users with permission
- 5
To make (an arrangement) secure, definite, or permanent; to fix
- 6
slangTo cause (another person) to enter into an exclusive romantic relationship
It took me some time, but I finally locked her down
- 7
To travel through a flight of locks on a waterway in a downhill direction
lockdown
- 1
The confinement of people in their own rooms (e.g., in a school) or cells (in a prison), or to their own homes or areas (e.g., in the case of a city- or nation-wide issue) as a security measure after…
- 2
USA contrivance to fasten logs together in rafting
The rafts were made up of strings of logs about seventeen feet wide, held together by poles across them. Each log was pinned to the poles by wooden pegs and lockdowns
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, lock down or lockdown?
lock down is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; lockdown 3.3 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).