give up

verb

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

"give-up" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“give 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 surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).

Corpus desk

Index EN-give-up · give up · English

give 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 "G" 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 give up
PropertyValue
Headwordgive up
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “give up” sits in English frequency

give upfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

give up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 10 senses are on record.

give up has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is give up, spelled G-I-V-E- -U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
  2. 2
    To relinquish (something)
  3. 3
    To have someone obtain (something) to one's disadvantage; to concede.
  4. 4
    To stop or quit (an activity, etc.).
  5. 5
    To abandon (someone or something)
  6. 6
    To lose hope concerning (someone or something)
  7. 7
    To admit defeat, capitulate; to desist for that reason.
  8. 8
    To execute a trade on behalf of another broker.
  9. 9
    To acknowledge, recognize as.
  10. 10
    To reveal (something).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. He was surrounded, so gave himself up.
  2. They gave him up to the police.

This word in other languages

rendirse(Español)se rendre(Français)aufgeben(Deutsch)desistir(Português)

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 "give up"?
"give up" is spelled G-I-V-E- -U-P.
What does "give up" mean?
As a verb, "give up" means: To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
What language does "give up" come from?
"give up" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

What to do next

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Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list