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PlainSpell

upset

/ʌpˈsɛt/adjective, noun, verb

upset is spelled U-P-S-E-T: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 41 times per million words in written English, the 2,438th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, upset means “Angry, distressed, or unhappy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in upset?

Letters5: U-P-S-E-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing41 times per million words; the 2,438th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is upset?

Upset appears 41 times per million words in written English, the 2,438th 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 upset?

  • US /ʌpˈsɛt/
  • Australia /ɐpˈset/

As a noun (“Disturbance or disruption”): /ˈʌp.sɛt/, /ˈɐp.set/.

Upset has 2 syllables (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)-Wodencafe-upset.wav, En-us-upset-verb-adj.ogg, En-us-upset-noun.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with upset?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as upset from its last stressed vowel (/ɛt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: setup, stupe.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of upset

  • more upset comparative
  • most upset superlative
  • upsets plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • upsetting participle, present

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

What does upset mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Angry, distressed, or unhappy

    He was upset when she refused his friendship.

  2. 2

    Feeling unwell, nauseated, or ready to vomit.

    His stomach was upset, so he didn't want to move.

noun

  1. 1

    Disturbance or disruption.

    My late arrival caused the professor considerable upset.

  2. 2

    An unexpected victory of a competitor or candidate that was not favored to win.

  3. 3

    An overturn.

    "collision and upset": impact with another object or an overturn for whatever reason.

  4. 4

    An upset stomach.

  5. 5

    An upper set; a subset (X,≤) of a partially ordered set with the property that, if x is in U and x≤y, then y is in U.

  6. 6

    The dangerous situation where the flight attitude or airspeed of an aircraft is outside the designed bounds of operation, possibly resulting in loss of control.

  7. 7

    A woven row supporting the foundation rods for the uprights of a basket.

verb

  1. 1

    To make (a person) angry, distressed, or unhappy.

    I’m sure the bad news will upset him, but he needs to know.

  2. 2

    To disturb, disrupt or adversely alter (something).

    Introducing a foreign species can upset the ecological balance.

  3. 3

    To tip or overturn (something).

  4. 4

    To defeat unexpectedly.

    Truman upset Dewey in the 1948 US presidential election.

  5. 5

    To be upset or knocked over.

    The carriage upset when the horse bolted.

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo set up; to put upright.

    with sail on mast upset

  7. 7

    To thicken and shorten a soft or heated piece of metal, by forging or hammering on the end, to shape, for example, rivets or internal combustion engine valves.

  8. 8

    To shorten (a tire) in the process of resetting, originally by cutting it and hammering on the ends.

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

Upset in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfâché, bouleversé, contrarié (angry, distressed, unhappy), dérangé, perturbé (of a stomach), renverser (tip, overturn)
Germanaufgebracht, aufgewühlt (angry, distressed, unhappy), verstimmt, gereizt, nervös, verkorkst (of a stomach)
Portuguesetriste, chateado (angry, distressed, unhappy), capotar (tip, overturn), desgosto (disturbance, disruption), surpresa (sports: unexpected victory of a competitor), desarranjar (disturb, disrupt, unfavorably alter)
Spanishtrastornado, molesto, contrariado, disgustado, apenado, mohíno (angry, distressed, unhappy)

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 upset come from?

From Middle English upset (“the act of setting up; establishment”), from Middle English upsetten, corresponding to up- + set. Cognate with Middle Low German upset (“setup; arrangement”).

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

What to look up after upset