upset the applecart
"upset-the-applecart" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“upset the applecart” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To disorganize or spoil something, especially an established arrangement or plan.
Corpus desk
Index EN-upset-the-applecart · upset the applecart · English
upset the applecart · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 19 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 | upset the applecart |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “upset the applecart” in English
Rare enough to double-check
upset the applecart is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To disorganize or spoil something, especially an established arrangement or plan.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for upset the applecart, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is upset the applecart, spelled U-P-S-E-T- -T-H-E- -A-P-P-L-E-C-A-R-T.
Definition
- 1To disorganize or spoil something, especially an established arrangement or plan.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how upset the applecart appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“There are three reasons,” Trent answered. “First, he may find his way to England and upset the applecart; […]”
She told me herself just now that the worst was over. And those confounded people must go and upset the applecart.
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.