hang up

verb

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

The verdict

“hang 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 put up to hang.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hang-up · hang up · English

hang up · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "H" 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 hang up
PropertyValue
Headwordhang up
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “hang up” in English

hang upranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

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

Rare enough to double-check

hang up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for hang up in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is hang up, spelled H-A-N-G- -U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    To put up to hang.
  2. 2
    To terminate a telephone call, originally by hanging the receiver on its hook or cradle thereby automatically disconnecting the line.
  3. 3
    To stop talking.
  4. 4
    To keep delayed, suspended, held up, or stuck.
  5. 5
    To rob or mug (someone).
  6. 6
    To arrest (someone); to send (someone) to prison.
  7. 7
    To quit (something); to give up or stop doing (something); to abandon (something).
  8. 8
    To distress, disadvantage or harm (someone).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. I hung up my wash on the line.
  2. When my mother started telling me to be careful over the phone, I threatened to hang up on her.

This word in other languages

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 "hang up"?
"hang up" is spelled H-A-N-G- -U-P.
What does "hang up" mean?
As a verb, "hang up" means: To put up to hang.
What language does "hang up" come from?
"hang 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