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u

/ˈjuː/letter, noun, pronoun, adjective

u is spelled U: one letter and one syllable. It appears 129 times per million words in written English, the 810th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a letter, u means “The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in u?

Letters1: U
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing129 times per million words; the 810th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is u?

U appears 129 times per million words in written English, the 810th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce u?

  • /ˈjuː/
  • /ɪʊ̯/
  • Australia /a/

U has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ewe.wav, En-ca-u.ogg, En-us-u.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with u

Sounds like: ewe, yew (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of u

  • us plural
  • u's plural
  • ues plural
  • you
  • ur
  • urs
  • urself singular
  • urselves plural
  • ũs plural
  • ũ's plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does u mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

letter

  1. 1

    The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

    I prefer the u in Arial to the one in Times New Roman.

noun

  1. 1

    The name of the Latin script letter U/u.

  2. 2

    A thing in the shape of the letter U.

symbol

as ŭ
  1. 1

    A dictionary transcription for the STRUT vowel

letter

as U
  1. 1

    The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

  2. 2

    A U-turn ('turned a U in the road')

  3. 3

    A double upright cordon espalier (also double U, triple U).

noun

as U
  1. 1

    A U-turn.

  2. 2

    Abbreviation of university.

  3. 3

    Abbreviation of Sunday.

  4. 4

    UKA film with the film classification U (“universal”).

  5. 5

    An honorific to a Burmese man

    U Thant; U Nu

adjective

as U
  1. 1

    UKdatedAbbreviation of upper class (“characteristic of the upper classes, particularly in the use of language”).

    To TAKE a bath is non-U against U to HAVE one’s bath.

  2. 2

    Abbreviation of united.

  3. 3

    Abbreviation of upper.

  4. 4

    Usually in parentheses: abbreviation of unclassified.

  5. 5

    UKAbbreviation of universal (“suitable for all ages”), in a film certificate.

preposition

as U
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of under.

  2. 2

    Abbreviation of up.

symbol

as û
  1. 1

    datedAn orthographic ⟨u⟩ with a diacritic that marks it as being the GOOSE vowel, as in the word "rude".

  2. 2

    An element of the digraph ûr, a dictionary transcription for the NURSE vowel

    + r

symbol

as ü
  1. 1

    A dictionary transcription for the GOOSE vowel

letter

as ũ
  1. 1

    obsoleteThe letter u with a tilde, replacing the sequence un or um.

    thũder – thunder

symbol

as ū
  1. 1

    A dictionary transcription for the USE vowel; also an orthographic ⟨u⟩ with a diacritic that marks it as having that value, as in the word "tune".

  2. 2

    A dictionary transcription for the GOOSE vowel

symbol

as u̇
  1. 1

    A dictionary transcription for the FOOT vowel

  2. 2

    datedAn orthographic ⟨u⟩ with a diacritic that marks it as being the NURSE vowel, as in the word "turn".

pronoun

  1. 1

    Abbreviation of you.

    t8k me w u

adjective

  1. 1

    Abbreviation of underwater.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

U in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense name of the letter U, u:

LanguageWords
Portugueseu
Spanishu

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does u come from?

From Middle English lower case letter v (also written u), from Old English lower case u, from 7th century replacement by lower case u of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚢ (u, ur), derived from Raetic letter u. Before the 1700s, the pointed form v was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form u was used elsewhere, regardless of sound. So whereas valor and excuse appeared as in modern printing, have and upon were printed haue and vpon.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after u