stir up

verb

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

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

The verdict

“stir 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 May 6, 2026) - To arouse or excite (passion or action, etc.).

Key facts for stir up
PropertyValue
Headwordstir up
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “stir up” sits in English frequency

stir up 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

stir up is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

stir up doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is stir up, spelled S-T-I-R- -U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    To arouse or excite (passion or action, etc.).
  2. 2
    To mix (ingredients) by stirring.
  3. 3
    To move or disturb slightly; to make turbid.

Synonyms

incite

This word in other languages

soliviantar(Español)stimuler(Français)entfachen(Deutsch)incitar(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 "stir up"?
"stir up" is spelled S-T-I-R- -U-P.
What does "stir up" mean?
As a verb, "stir up" means: To arouse or excite (passion or action, etc.).
What language does "stir up" come from?
"stir 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.

Using “stir up”

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

  • The one correct English spelling is S-T-I-R- -U-P - 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