wake-up call
"wake-up-call" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wake-up call” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A telephone call to awaken someone at a certain time, especially one requested by the person while staying at a hotel.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wake-up call |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wake-up call” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
wake-up call is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for wake-up call in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is wake-up call, spelled W-A-K-E---U-P- -C-A-L-L.
Definition
- 1A telephone call to awaken someone at a certain time, especially one requested by the person while staying at a hotel.
- 2An alert, reminder, or call to action caused by a dramatic event.
This word in other languages
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “wake-up call”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-K-E---U-P- -C-A-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.