Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use up in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb, preposition, adjective

Up means away from the surface of the Earth or other planet; in opposite direction to the downward pull of gravity. Example: “I looked up and saw the airplane overhead.”

Examples of up by meaning

adverbAway from the surface of the Earth or other planet; in opposite direction to the downward pull of gravity.

  • I looked up and saw the airplane overhead.
  • Shoots grow up and roots grow down.

adverbTo or at a physically higher or more elevated position.

  • All day we climbed up and up.
  • Lift the carpet up and look underneath.
  • He lives up in the hills.

adverbTo an upright or erect position.

  • sit up; stand up; get up out of bed

adverbTo a higher level of some quantity or notional quantity, such as price, volume, pitch, happiness, etc.

  • Gold has gone up with the uncertainty in the world markets.
  • Turn it up, I can barely hear it.
  • Listen to your voice go up at the end of a question.

adverbTo or towards what is considered the top of something, irrespective of whether this is presently physically higher.

  • Go back up to the top of the page.
  • As I lay on my back, a pain shot up from my toes to my chest.
  • Let’s move up to the front of the bus.

adverbTo the north (as north is at the top of typical maps).

  • I live in Florida, but I'm going up to New York to visit my family this weekend.

adverbTowards or at a central place, or any place that is visualised as ‘up’ by virtue of local features or local convention...

  • We travelled from Yorkshire up to London.
  • I'm going up to the other end of town.
  • He lives up by the railway station.

adverbTo university, especially to Cambridge or Oxford.

  • She's going up to read Classics this September.
  • Others insinuated that women 'crowded up to Cambridge', not for the benefits of a higher education, but because of the proximity of 2,000 young men.1998, Rita McWilliams Tullberg, Women at Cambridge, page 112
  • A precocious mathematician, Babbage was already well versed in the Continental mathematical notations when he went up to Cambridge.2002, Peter Harman, Cambridge Scientific Minds, page 79

More sentences with up

  • If you want to know the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary.From the entry dictionary
  • He often brings up current events in conversation to spark debate.From the entry current events
  • I’ve heard merchants still use an abacus for adding things up in China.From the entry abacus
  • After my bout with Guillan-Barre Syndrome, it took me 6 months to be up and about again.From the entry about
  • Your feet will soon warm up once your socks are on.From the entry on
  • Climbing up that steep ridge isn't on. We'll have to find another route.From the entry on
  • During this school year I have to get up at 6:30 to catch the bus.From the entry year
  • There comes a point in a marathon when some people give up.From the entry point
  • Since this was rebel country, checkpoints were set up along the road.From the entry country
  • Unemployment was reported at 5.2% in May, up from 4.9% in April.From the entry unemployment
  • Now all the children have grown up and left, the house is very quiet.From the entry now
  • Stop by the market on your way home and pick up some milk.From the entry market
  • We don't have much time. Let's get to work piling up those sandbags.From the entry work
  • William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works.From the entry work
  • The atmosphere is made up of a number of different gases.From the entry gas
  • The insurgents snuck up close and mortared the base last night.From the entry mortar
  • It’s asking a lot of this old car to make it all the way up to Scotland.From the entry ask
  • Stand up, walk to the refrigerator, and get your own snack.From the entry stand
  • Grounds are usually put up first and the plastering floated flush with them.From the entry ground
  • He tried to buy me with gifts, but I wouldn't give up my beliefs.From the entry buy
  • I'm tired of picking up after you. Why can't you clean your own messes?From the entry after

Meaning of up

  1. adverb Away from the surface of the Earth or other planet; in opposite direction to the downward pull of gravity.
  2. adverb To or at a physically higher or more elevated position.
  3. adverb To an upright or erect position.

Full definition of up

Questions about up in a sentence

How do you use up in a sentence?
Up is used as an adverb, preposition and adjective. For example: “I looked up and saw the airplane overhead.”
What is a short sentence with up?
“He lives up in the hills.”
What does up mean?
Up means away from the surface of the Earth or other planet; in opposite direction to the downward pull of gravity.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use up in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.