up the river
"up-the-river" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“up the river” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To prison.
Corpus desk
Index EN-up-the-river · up the river · English
up the river · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "U" 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 | up the river |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “up the river” in English
Rare enough to double-check
up the river is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To prison.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for up the river in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: A reference to Sing Sing prison, which is located on the Hudson river, to the north of (and upstream from) New York City. The correct English form is up the river, spelled U-P- -T-H-E- -R-I-V-E-R.
Definition
- 1To prison.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how up the river appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The former baseball player that Cincinnati idolized is being sent up the river to Ashland, Ky., to serve a prison term for cheating on his taxes.
Etymology
A reference to Sing Sing prison, which is located on the Hudson river, to the north of (and upstream from) New York City.
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.