Word.ws English Dictionary

upon

Syllables: up·onUK/əˈpɒn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/əˈpɔn/

upon preposition: alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.

Preposition

upon

  1. (higher register or formal) alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.
    • A vase of flowers stood upon the table. — The painting hangs upon the wall. — All of the responsibility is upon him. — She plays upon a violin (or piano). — The lighthouse that you can see is upon the mainland. — He rested upon his elbows. — Tug upon the rope; push hard upon the door! — I stubbed...
    • Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish

Examples of upon in a sentence

  • Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew]...
  • But as they were upon going forth, a trumpet was sounded without, three strident blasts.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 7:

All 40 example sentences with upon

Forms of upon

alternative form (obsolete)uppon
alternative form (obsolete)vpon
alternative form (obsolete)vppon

Origin of upon

From Middle English upon, uppon, uppen, from Old English upon, uppon, uppan (“on, upon, up to, against, after, in addition to”), equivalent to up (“adverb”) + on (“preposition”). Cognate with Old Saxon uppan (“upon”), Old High German ūfan, ūffan (“upon”), Icelandic upp á, upp á (“up on, upon”), Swedish uppå (“up on, upon”) (thence Swedish på), Danish på (“up on, upon”), Norwegian på (“up on, upon”).

Words formed from upon

Phrases with upon

160 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with upon

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about upon

What does upon mean?
Upon means alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.
How do you use upon in a sentence?
Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.
What part of speech is upon?
Upon is a preposition.
How do you pronounce upon?
Upon is pronounced /əˈpɒn/ (UK).

Words near upon in the dictionary

  1. upo'
  2. upogebiid
  3. upogebiids
  4. upokororo
  5. Upolu
  6. upon
  7. upon 'Change
  8. upon a sixpence
  9. upon a stound
  10. upon a sudden
  11. upon a time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-upon.ogg.

Cite this entry: “upon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/upon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.