bugger up
/ˈbʌɡə(ɹ)ʌp/
"bugger-up" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bugger 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
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To break or spoil something, or make it inoperative, useless etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bugger-up · bugger up · English
bugger up · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 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 | bugger up |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈbʌɡə(ɹ)ʌp/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bugger up” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bugger up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈbʌɡə(ɹ)ʌp/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for bugger up, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is bugger up, spelled B-U-G-G-E-R- -U-P.
Definition
- 1To break or spoil something, or make it inoperative, useless etc.
- 2To injure or harm (someone).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bugger up appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I've buggered up the sudoku somehow and can't finish it.
Well, he only buggers up one sentence, and that's the first one. He says, 'Shut up, blek.' But from that point on, it was OK because I helped him with it. If I'd been there, I would have told him to say, 'Shut up, black', exactly the same as an American accent.
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.