look up to

verb

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

"look-up-to" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“look up to” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To show respect or admiration for (someone); to see (someone) as a role model.

Key facts for look up to
PropertyValue
Headwordlook up to
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “look up to” sits in English frequency

look up to falls 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

look up to is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To show respect or admiration for (someone); to see (someone) as a role model.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for look up to, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 look up to, spelled L-O-O-K- -U-P- -T-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    To show respect or admiration for (someone); to see (someone) as a role model.

This word in other languages

respetar(Español)respecter(Français)achten(Deutsch)admirar(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 "look up to"?
"look up to" is spelled L-O-O-K- -U-P- -T-O.
What does "look up to" mean?
As a verb, "look up to" means: To show respect or admiration for (someone); to see (someone) as a role model.
What language does "look up to" come from?
"look up to" 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.

Using “look up to”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is L-O-O-K- -U-P- -T-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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