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PlainSpell

rise

/ɹaɪz/verb, noun

rise is a verb meaning “To move upwards” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-I-S-E and has one syllable, and it appears 65 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does rise mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To move upwards.

    We watched the balloon rise.

  2. 2

    To grow upward; to attain a certain height.

    This elm tree rises to a height of seventy feet.

  3. 3

    To slope upward.

    The path rises as you approach the foot of the hill.

  4. 4

    To appear to move upwards from behind the horizon of a planet as a result of the planet's rotation.

    The sun was rising in the East.

  5. 5

    To become erect; to assume an upright position.

    to rise from a chair or from a fall

  6. 6

    To leave one's bed; to get up.

  7. 7

    To be resurrected.

    he rose from the grave;   he is risen!

  8. 8

    To terminate an official sitting; to adjourn.

    The committee rose after agreeing to the report.

noun

  1. 1

    The process of or an action or instance of moving upwards or becoming greater.

    The rise of the tide.

  2. 2

    The process of or an action or instance of coming to prominence.

    The rise of the working class.

  3. 3

    AustraliaCanadaUKAn increase in a quantity, price, etc.

  4. 4

    AustraliaCanadaIrelandUKEllipsis of pay rise (“an increase in wage or salary”).

    The governor just gave me a rise of two pound six.

  5. 5

    The amount of material extending from waist to crotch in a pair of trousers or shorts.

    The rise of his pants was so low that his tailbone was exposed.

  6. 6

    The front of a diaper.

  7. 7

    A small hill; used chiefly in place names.

  8. 8

    An area of terrain that tends upward away from the viewer, such that it conceals the region behind it; a slope.

  9. 9

    Alternative form of rice (“twig”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce rise?

  • /ɹaɪz/
  • /ɹaɪs/

Rise has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-rise.ogg, En-au-rise.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of rise

  • rises present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • rising participle, present
  • rose past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • risen participle, past
  • rize

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is rise?

Rise appears 65 times per million words in written English, the 1,636th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with rise

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

raise vs rise880 G
rice vs rise0 B

Also written: pay rise, rice, rize.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Rise in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmonter (to move upwards), se lever (of a celestial body: to appear to move from…), ressusciter (to be resurrected), prendre sa source (to have its source), montée (action of moving upwards)
Germansteigen, aufsteigen, hochsteigen, hochfliegen (to move upwards), aufgehen (of a celestial body: to appear to move from…), auferstehen (to be resurrected)
Portuguesesubir, ascender, levantar (to move upwards), erguer-se (of a celestial body: to appear to move from…), ressurgir (to be resurrected), aumentar (of a quantity, etc: to increase)
Spanishlevantarse, repuntar, subir (to move upwards), salir, nacer, levar (disused) (of a celestial body: to appear to move from…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rise come from?

From Middle English risen, from Old English rīsan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīsan, from Proto-Germanic *rīsaną (“to rise”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to arise, rise”). According to Kroonen (2013), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to rise, spring”). See also raise.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).