clear up

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"clear-up" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“clear 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
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To clarify, to correct a misconception.

Corpus desk

Index EN-clear-up · clear up · English

clear up · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" 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.

Key facts for clear up
PropertyValue
Headwordclear up
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “clear up” in English

clear upsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

clear up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for clear up in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 clear up, spelled C-L-E-A-R- -U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    To clarify, to correct a misconception.
  2. 2
    To depart or disappear.
  3. 3
    To become free of certain blemishes.
  4. 4
    Of stormy weather, to dissipate, to become calm.
  5. 5
    To clean up.
  6. 6
    To pot all of the remaining balls in a single turn.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how clear up appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. All of their symptoms cleared up after the mold was removed.
  2. With the new cleanser, his skin cleared up in two weeks.

This word in other languages

esclarecer(Español)aufklären(Deutsch)

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "clear up"?
"clear up" is spelled C-L-E-A-R- -U-P.
What does "clear up" mean?
As a verb, "clear up" means: To clarify, to correct a misconception.
What language does "clear up" come from?
"clear up" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list