upon
/əˈpɒn/
"upon" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“upon” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #798. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #798
- frequency rank, English
- 1,433
- “U” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A higher-register or more formal alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.
Corpus desk
Index EN-upon · upon · English
upon · rank #798 · 5 variants · 12 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #798
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 12 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,433
- PHOTO-FINISH UK
Nearest frequency peer: UK (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “upon”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- science
science
99,206 corpus weight
- trade
trade
99,205 corpus weight
- UK
UK
99,204 corpus weight
- upon
upon
99,203 corpus weight
- various
various
99,202 corpus weight
- attention
attention
99,201 corpus weight
What this shows “upon” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | upon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | /əˈpɒn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #798 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “upon”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around upon (IPA /əˈpɒn/), apreposition. Corpus frequency is #798 among 1,433 “U” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A higher-register or more formal alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for upon, with forms such as "puon", "uopn", and "upno". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "UPS", "urn", "USO", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Germanic *ub Proto-Germanic *upp Proto-West Germanic *upp Old English upp Proto-Indo-European *h₂en-der. Proto-Germanic *an Proto-West Germanic *ana Old English on Old English uppan Middle English upon English u… The correct English form is upon, spelled U-P-O-N.
Definition
- 1A higher-register or more formal alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how upon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A vase of flowers stood upon the table. — The painting hangs upon the wall. — All of the responsibility is upon him. — She plays upon a violin (or piano). — The lighthouse that you can see is upon the mainland. — He rested upon his elbows. — Tug upon the rope; push hard upon the door! — I stubbed my toe upon an old tree stump. — He wore old shoes upon his…
Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Germanic *ub Proto-Germanic *upp Proto-West Germanic *upp Old English upp Proto-Indo-European *h₂en-der. Proto-Germanic *an Proto-West Germanic *ana Old English on Old English uppan Middle English upon English upon From Middle English upon, uppon, uppen, from Old English upon, uppon, uppan (“on, upon, up to, against, after, in addition to”), equivalent to up (“adverb”) + on (“preposition”). Cognate with Old Saxon uppan (“upon”), Old High German ūfan, ūffan (“upon”), Icelandic upp á, upp á (“up on, upon”), Swedish uppå (“up on, upon”) (thence Swedish på), Danish på (“up on, upon”), Norwegian på (“up on, upon”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- puon
- uopn
- upno
- uponn
- uppon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of upon - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "upon", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).