Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- prep. On. See Usage Note at on.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Up and on: in many cases scarcely more than a synonym of on, the force of up being almost or entirely lost. See on, preposition Specifically— Aloft on; in an elevated position on; on a high or the highest part of: noting rest or location.
- Upward so as to get or be on: involving motion toward a higher point.
- On, in any sense: conveying no notion of height, elevation, rise, or ascent. See on. Aside from the uses noted in the foregoing definition, upon is strictly synonymous with on, and is preferred in certain cases only for euphonic or metrical reasons. For parallel uses of the two words, see the following quotations.
- See the verbs.
- Hereupon; thereupon; onward; on.
Wiktionary
- prep. Being above and in contact with another.
- prep. Being directly supported by another.
- prep. At a prescribed point in time.
- adv. Being the target of an action.
- adv. Incidental to a specified point in time or order of action; usually combined with here-, there- or where-.
GNU Webster's 1913
- prep. On; -- used in all the senses of that word, with which it is interchangeable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. being up to particular standard or level especially in being up to date in knowledge
Etymologies
- 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 Icelandic up á, upp á ("up on, upon"), Swedish på ("up on, upon"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“These domestic Fairies _kept their marriages upon the same day_ as the Human Beings; _their children were born upon the same day_; and _upon the same day they wailed for their dead.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 56, No. 345, July, 1844
“For it is of the nature of love when confronted by two alternatives one of which lays the stress upon personal advantage and the other _upon love itself_ apart from any personal advantage, whether one's own or another's, to choose, as the assumption upon which it shall live, the latter of these two alternatives.”
“I think it depends upon yourself, said Siward, upon your capacity for being, or for making people believe you to be exactly what they require.”
“I pass one or two points I have, because my time will very soon expire; but I must be allowed to say that Judge Douglas recurs again, as he did upon one or two other occasions, to the enormity of Lincoln, an insignificant individual like Lincoln, upon his ipse dixit charging a conspiracy upon a large number of members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and two Presidents, to nationalize slavery.”
“Its burden rests, not upon the unfortunate individual who has become tuberculous, but _upon the community_ which, by its ignorance, its selfishness, and its greed, has done much to make him so.”
“In the book of Daniel the hand that traces the warning words upon the walls of Belshazzar's palace traces them "_upon the plaster of the wall_" (DANIEL v. 5).”
“The prayer of the Psalmist that this beauty may be _upon_ us conceives of it as given to us from above and as coming floating down from heaven, like that white Dove that fell upon Christ's head, fair and meek, gentle and lovely, and resting on our anointed heads, like a diadem and an aureole of glory.”
“You must either build upon Christ or fall over Him; you must either build _upon_ Christ, or be crushed to powder _under_ Him.”
“Our Lord, however, does not merely bid us not to lay up treasure upon earth; for if he had said no more, this his commandment might be abused, and persons might find in it an encouragement for their extravagant habits, for their love of pleasure, for their habit of spending everything they have, or can obtain, _upon themselves_.”
The Life of Trust: Being a Narrative of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller
“Wishing, therefore, Lorenzo speedily to purchase a small bronze figure of him, from the celebrated large one at Rotterdam, and to place the same upon a copy of his first edition of the _Greek Testament_ printed _upon vellum_, [301] by way of”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘upon’.
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EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
about, above, across, after, afterwards, again, against, all, almost, alone, along, already and 291 more...
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Old-timey Function Words
Function Word
Herein we place all the therebys, amongsts and withals.hereby, thereby, whereby, herein, therein, wherein, forthwith, therewith, withal, amongst, moreover, heretofore and 21 more...
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See Usage Note at
Being a list of words with the phrase "See Usage Note at" in their definitions. Most of these come from the American Heritage Dictionary.
upon, seldom, among, compliment, thus, further, predicament, latter, repel, inflammable, gentleman, adage and 12 more...
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#1
Words I Like
abide, sashay, microbial, scented, nature, amorphous, unknown, imagine, photogenic, soft, silken, history and 188 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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now-positions
without prepping
for, to, from, toward, in, through, with, on, against, into, at, by and 48 more...
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Poetic Words
outgrabe, mome raths, borogoves, mimsy, wabe, gimble, gyre, toves, slithy, brillig, twas, camelot and 76 more...
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Bear With Me
Phrases including things that bear or are borne (with the meaning "to support," "to hold," or "to carry").
witness, grudge, burden, repeating, weight, strain, child, fruit, examination, blame, suffering, cross and 50 more...
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