look up
/ˈlʊk ʌp/
"look-up" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“look 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) - Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, up.
Corpus desk
Index EN-look-up · look up · English
look 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 "L" 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 | look up |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈlʊk ʌp/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “look up” in English
Rare enough to double-check
look up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈlʊk ʌp/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
look up doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is look up, spelled L-O-O-K- -U-P.
Definition
- 1Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, up.
- 2To have better prospects.
- 3To obtain, or seek to obtain, information about something.
- 4To obtain, or seek to obtain, information about something.
- 5To obtain, or seek to obtain, information about something.
- 6To reconnect or meet with someone that one used to know.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how look up appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We stayed up late to look up at the stars.
Things started looking up after Jim moved back in with his parents.
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.