Word.ws English Dictionary

upright

/ˈʌpɹaɪt/

upright adjective: vertical; erect. Also the abbreviation of upright bass.

Adjective

upright (comparative more upright, superlative most upright)

  1. Vertical; erect.
    • Fab[ell]: What meanes the tolling of this fatall chime, // O what a trembling horror ſtrikes my hart! // My ſtiffned haire ſtands vpright on my head, // As doe the briſtles of a porcupine.1608, William Shakespeare, The merry Deuill of Edmonton, introduction, lines 1-4
    • Supported by pillows, ſhe ſat almoſt upright.1782, Fanny Burney, Cecilia; or, Memoirs of an Heiress, volume V, Book X, chapter X: “A Termination”, page 372
    Synonyms:
    orthograde, surrect
  2. In its proper orientation; not overturned.
    • My brother didn't get angry when his son knocked over the lamp; he simply called the boy over and helped him set it upright again.
  3. Greater in height than breadth.
  4. (figuratively) Of good morals; reliable and trustworthy; practicing ethical values.
    • There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 1:1
  5. Having a head at approximately a right angle with the shaft.
  6. Characterized by a style of running with the head and shoulders held high.
    • He's an upright runner.

Adverb

upright (comparative more upright, superlative most upright)

  1. In or into an upright position.
    • I was standing upright, waiting for my orders.
    • Human locomotion had been presumed unique because we walk upright with two legs. When investigators led by Nadia Dominici analyzed the electrical activities produced by walking toddlers, preschoolers, and adults as well as newborns that were held upright and prodded to walk along a surface...2011 November 17, Hans Villarica, “A Rat's First Steps: How Humans and Other Animals Learn to Walk”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2022
    Synonyms:
    standing
  2. On one's feet (as opposed to in a wheelchair).
    • Amputee hockey is played upright.

Noun

upright (plural uprights)

  1. Any vertical part of a structure, especially a part that provides support.
    • On the change in architectural forms from the pyramidal to the obeliscar, the fires were transferred from the altars, or cubes, to the summits of the typical uprights, or towers; […]1942, Reuben Swinburne Clymer, The Philosophy of Fire, page 64
    1. A goal post.
      • Chelsea improved, with Salomon Kalou denied by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and Didier Drogba hitting the upright.2011 January 5, Mark Ashenden, “Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Chelsea”, in BBC
    2. The poles of a field goal post.
    3. (slang) A leg.
    4. (camping) A tentpole that holds aloft the center or sides of a tent.
      • Coordinate term: ridge
  2. The state of being vertical or perpendicular.
    • Can you fix that? It's out of upright.
  3. (informal) Characterized by being awake and out of bed.
    Synonyms:
    up
  4. A word clued by the successive initial, middle, or final letters of the cross-lights in a double acrostic or triple acrostic.
  5. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) The tips of the antlers of a young deer.

Verb

upright (third-person singular simple present uprights, present participle uprighting, simple past and past participle uprighted)

  1. (transitive) To set upright or stand back up (something that has fallen).

Proper noun capitalized: Upright

Upright (plural Uprights)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

upright is also the abbreviation of upright bass.

upright is also the abbreviation of upright bicycle.

upright is also the abbreviation of upright freezer.

upright is also the abbreviation of upright piano.

upright is also the abbreviation of upright arcade game cabinet.

upright is also the ellipsis of upright vacuum cleaner.

upright meaning in Bengali, Sanskrit, Assamese and Arabic

upright in Bengali

vertical; erect
খাড়া khaṛa

upright in Sanskrit

vertical; erect
ऊर्ध्व ūrdhva
of good morals
ऋजु ṛju

upright in Assamese

vertical; erect
থিয় thio

upright in Arabic

of good morals
مُسْتَقِيم mustaqīm
More languagesFewer languages
upright in Indonesian
tegak

Examples of upright in a sentence

  • In this design, the seat squab can be pulled out some six inches, the seat back being attached to the seat to give a less upright sitting position.1957 August, “New Multiple-Unit Stock for Hastings and Watford Services”, in Railway Magazine, page 532:
  • Upright posture evolved well before an enlarged brain in hominids.2006, Neil A. Campbell, Biology: concepts & connections, page 404:
  • Human locomotion had been presumed unique because we walk upright with two legs.2011 November 17, Hans Villarica, “A Rat's First Steps: How Humans and Other Animals Learn to Walk”, in The Atlantic, archived from the...
  • For instance, parents were strongly encouraged to delay the introduction of complementary foods to six months when infants were able to sit upright and feed themselves safely.2016 September 16, “Choking risk for baby-led weaning no different than spoon-feeding”, in CBC News, archived from the original on 19 Nov...

All 40 example sentences with upright

Synonyms of upright

Forms of upright

Adjective
comparativemore upright
superlativemost upright
alternative form (obsolete)vpright
Adverb
comparativemore upright
superlativemost upright
Noun
pluraluprights
Verb
third-person singular presentuprights
present participleuprighting
past participleuprighted
pastuprighted
Proper noun
pluralUprights

Origin of upright

From Middle English upright, uppryght, upriht, from Old English upriht (“upright; erect”), from Proto-Germanic *upprehtaz, equivalent to up- + right. Cognate with Saterland Frisian apgjucht (“upright”), West Frisian oprjocht (“upright”), Dutch oprecht (“upright”), German Low German uprecht (“upright”), German aufrecht (“upright”), Swedish upprätt (“upright”), Icelandic uppréttur (“upright”).

Words formed from upright

Phrases with upright

Questions about upright

What does upright mean?
Upright means vertical; erect.
What is upright in Bengali?
Upright in Bengali is খাড়া (khaṛa). See Upright meaning in Bengali.
How do you use upright in a sentence?
In this design, the seat squab can be pulled out some six inches, the seat back being attached to the seat to give a less upright sitting position.
What part of speech is upright?
Upright can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce upright?
Upright is pronounced /ˈʌpɹaɪt/.

Words near upright in the dictionary

  1. uprides
  2. upridge
  3. upridged
  4. upridges
  5. upridging
  6. upright
  7. upright bass
  8. upright basses
  9. upright bassist
  10. upright bassists
  11. upright bicycle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upright (page history and authors); Upright (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.

Last updated:

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

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