wake up
/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/verb
wake up is spelled W-A-K-E-U-P: 6 letters and 2 syllables. As a verb, wake up means “To stop sleeping; to awake” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in wake up?
| Letters | 6: W-A-K-E-U-P |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | a phrase: the frequency list counts single words |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you pronounce wake up?
- US /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/
- US [ˌweɪˈkʌp]
Wake up has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-to_wake_up.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Usmaan_(Middle_river_exports)-wake_up.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with wake up
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: wakeup (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of wake up
- wakes up present, singular, he/she/it
- waking up participle, present
- woke up past
- waked up past, participle
- woken up participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wake up mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To stop sleeping; to awake.
- 2
To awaken somebody.
Wake your brother up; it's time for school.
- 3
To become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand.
Some businesses were slow to wake up to the importance of the Internet.
noun
- 1
Alternative form of wakeup.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Wake up in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | se réveiller , réveiller |
| German | aufwachen, erwachen, wach werden , aufwecken, wecken, wach machen |
| Portuguese | acordar, despertar |
| Spanish | despertarse, recordar, despertar , espabilar |
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 wake up come from?
From wake + up.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).