Basic+ Word of the Day: wake up

wake up (noun, adjective)

It's time to wake up.

If you wake up, it means that you stop sleeping.

• I don't need an alarm because I always wake up early.

You can also wake someone up if you make them stop sleeping.

• Every morning, I wake my daughter up at 7am.
• Your alarm woke me up at 5am!

Don't confuse it with

Wake (without up) is also a noun, but it has a different meaning. A wake is a party after a funeral (ie, the ceremony after someone dies) with eating and drinking.

Common uses

If you want someone to stop sleeping, you can say “Wake up!”

Don't forget

Wake is an irregular verb. The simple past is woke.

In pop culture

Do you know the song “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by the British group Wham!? The extra go in the title is there to rhyme with yo-yo. The singer is asking someone to wake him up before leaving the house so they can go dancing (listen to the singer say, “Take me dancing tonight.”)