Wake up or wakeup?
wake up is a verb meaning “To stop sleeping; to awake”; wakeup is a noun meaning “An act or instance of waking up”. Use wake up as a verb and wakeup as a noun. wake up is written as two words and wakeup as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between wake up and wakeup?
| wake up | wakeup | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun |
| Meaning | To stop sleeping; to awake To awaken somebody | An act or instance of waking up An act or instance of being awakened; a wake-up call |
| Example | Wake your brother up; it's time for school | Give me a wakeup around six, will you? |
| Forms | none | wakeups |
| Pronunciation | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ [ˌweɪˈkʌp] | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: wake up and wakeup 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 wake up and wakeup
wake up
- 1
To stop sleeping; to awake
- 2
Alternative form of wakeup
- 3
To awaken somebody
Wake your brother up; it's time for school
- 4
To become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand
Some businesses were slow to wake up to the importance of the Internet
wakeup
- 1
An act or instance of waking up
- 2
An act or instance of being awakened; a wake-up call
Give me a wakeup around six, will you?
- 3
Colaptes auratus, northern flicker
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, wake up or wakeup?
wake up is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; wakeup about once in every 3 million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).