bear up
"bear-up" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bear up” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To sail close to the wind.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bear-up · bear up · English
bear up · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bear up |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bear up” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bear up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for bear up, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is bear up, spelled B-E-A-R- -U-P.
Definition
- 1To sail close to the wind.
- 2To endure hardship cheerfully or without complaining.
- 3To support; to keep from falling or sinking.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bear up appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Afterwards the Lord renued this Covenant with Noah, Gen. 6.10. and did further reveale it in another Type, namely, the ſaving of Noah and his family in the Arke, which was borne up by the flood of Waters; […]
[Religious hope] does not only bear up the mind under her sufferings.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.