screw up

verb

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

"screw-up" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“screw 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 tighten or secure with screws.

Corpus desk

Index EN-screw-up · screw up · English

screw 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 "S" 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 screw up
PropertyValue
Headwordscrew up
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “screw up” in English

screw 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

screw 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.

screw up has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is screw up, spelled S-C-R-E-W- -U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    To tighten or secure with screws.
  2. 2
    To raise by turning a rotary handle.
  3. 3
    To raise (rent, fees, etc.) to extortionate levels.
  4. 4
    To raise or summon up.
  5. 5
    To twist into a contorted state.
  6. 6
    To squint.
  7. 7
    To make a mess of; to ruin.
  8. 8
    To blunder; to make a mistake.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. A crunch on the gravel brought me back to the present. A triffid came swaying down the drive toward the gate. I leaned across and screwed up the window.
  2. As far as was possible he kept his subjects as mindless fighting-cocks, troops that could be promised to one power if there was a chance of screwing up another power to a bigger subsidy.

This word in other languages

cagarla(Español)foirer(Français)zuschrauben(Deutsch)cagar no pau(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 "screw up"?
"screw up" is spelled S-C-R-E-W- -U-P.
What does "screw up" mean?
As a verb, "screw up" means: To tighten or secure with screws.
What language does "screw up" come from?
"screw up" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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