knock up
/nɒk ʌp/
"knock-up" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“knock 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 put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily.
Corpus desk
Index EN-knock-up · knock up · English
knock up · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "K" 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 | knock up |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /nɒk ʌp/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “knock up” in English
Rare enough to double-check
knock up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /nɒk ʌp/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for knock up in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is knock up, spelled K-N-O-C-K- -U-P.
Definition
- 1To put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily.
- 2To awaken (someone) as by knocking at the door; rouse; call; summon; also, to go door-to-door on election day to persuade a candidate's supporters to go to the polling station and vote. See also knocker up.
- 3To exhaust; wear out; tire out; to fatigue until unable to do more.
- 4To become exhausted or worn out; to fail of strength; to become wearied, as with labor; to give out.
- 5To impregnate, especially out of wedlock. See knocked up.
- 6To gently hit the ball back and forth before a tennis match, as practice or warm-up, and to gauge the state of the playing surface, lighting, etc. See knock-up.
- 7To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form.
- 8To straighten up a stack of paper.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how knock up appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I'll just knock up a quick demo for the sales presentation.
However, by dint of beating about a little in the dark, and now and then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to inquire the way, we at last came to something which there was no mistaking.
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.