Up Word Family

Cup, pup and sup, then teacup, cleanup and close-up, with soup and group kept apart, in five lists.

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List 1: -up, short words (cup)

Words to learn. Read each word, cover it, write it, then check it.

  1. 1.upTug the zipper up to your chin.
  2. 2.cupPour the cocoa into a blue cup.
  3. 3.pupThe sleepy pup curled inside a laundry basket.
  4. 4.supThe travelers sup on bread and stew.
  5. 5.yupYup, that muddy backpack is mine.
  6. 6.scupWe grilled the scup we caught off the pier.

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Next step Another short u family, -ug: bug, hug, plugThe -ut family: cut, nut, shortcut

All 46 words

List 1: -up, short words (cup) 6

  • cup Pour the cocoa into a blue cup.
  • pup The sleepy pup curled inside a laundry basket.
  • scup We grilled the scup we caught off the pier.
  • sup The travelers sup on bread and stew.
  • up Tug the zipper up to your chin.
  • yup Yup, that muddy backpack is mine.

List 2: longer words that end in -up (teacup) 12

  • backup Keep a backup pencil inside your desk.
  • breakup Spring breakup sent ice drifting down the river.
  • checkup The vet gave the kitten a quick checkup.
  • cleanup Beach cleanup begins after the morning tide.
  • eggcup Set the boiled egg in the striped eggcup.
  • lineup The batting lineup hangs inside the dugout.
  • markup The shop adds a small markup to each kite.
  • pickup Hay bales filled the back of the pickup.
  • roundup Ranch hands rode out for the autumn roundup.
  • setup The tent setup took less than ten minutes.
  • sunup Roosters crow at sunup on the farm.
  • teacup A chipped teacup sat on the windowsill.
Show all 46 words (28 more)

List 3: -up after a hyphen (close-up) 10

  • chin-up He managed a chin-up on the doorway bar.
  • close-up The close-up showed every scale on the lizard.
  • made-up They invented a made-up language for their fort.
  • pop-up The pop-up book unfolded into a paper castle.
  • pull-up She did one pull-up on the monkey bars.
  • runner-up The runner-up received a silver ribbon.
  • sit-up Our coach counted each sit-up out loud.
  • slip-up One slip-up sent the marbles rolling everywhere.
  • tune-up Our lawn mower needs a tune-up this spring.
  • write-up The paper printed a write-up of the spelling bee.

List 4: up at the start or inside (puppy) 12

  • cupcake Each cupcake had a swirl of lemon frosting.
  • guppy One orange guppy darted behind the plant.
  • puppet A sock puppet peeked over the couch.
  • puppy A wiggly puppy untied both of my shoelaces.
  • supper We ate supper on the back steps.
  • uphill The uphill ride made our legs burn.
  • upper The upper bunk has the best view.
  • upright Stand the umbrella upright in the corner.
  • uproar The dropped tray caused an uproar in the cafeteria.
  • upside The upside of rain is a puddle walk.
  • upstairs Carry the laundry basket upstairs, please.
  • upward The balloon floated upward past the rooftops.

List 5: ends in -oup, another sound (soup) 6

  • coup Landing the lead role was a real coup.
  • group Our group built a bridge from craft sticks.
  • recoup The bake sale helped recoup the field trip costs.
  • regroup The hikers stopped to regroup at the fork.
  • soup Stir the soup so the noodles do not stick.
  • subgroup Each subgroup studied a different planet.

How this list was compiled: Words chosen and sorted into 5 lists for Homeroom Tools. The choice, the sorting and the sentences are ours; no published list, program or workbook was opened or copied. SOUND AND SPELLING: every word was looked up on 14 October 2026 in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q= plus the word) for the sound of its ending and for a second spelling on the headword line, and each has an English entry in Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0). The dictionary writes the ending of all 28 words on Lists 1 to 3 as ŭp, with short u; in the longer words it carries a stress mark (teacup, close-up), the main one in runner-up and made-up. The words of List 2 are entered as one word with no second spelling and those of List 3 with a hyphen. The same dictionary enters clean up, pick up, line up, back up, set up, round up and break up as phrasal verbs, two words each, under clean, pick, line, back, set, round and break. On List 4 the same ŭp is the first, stressed syllable (puppy, upper, uphill). On List 5 the letters oup end words said with the vowel of moon (soup, group), and the p of coup is silent. The inflections (cupped, supping, upped), the word histories (pup short for puppy; sup and supper from Old French souper; scup, a fish of northwestern Atlantic waters) and the pronunciations of cupboard, cupcake, hiccup, syrup and ketchup are from the same dictionary's entries. A WORD FAMILY here is a set of words that share a rime, which Wikipedia's Phonics article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics) gives as the vowel and the consonant sounds that follow it. SOUND-ALIKES: coup (coo): the dictionary gives both words one pronunciation, and Wiktionary lists coo as a homophone of coup. LEFT OUT: hiccup (also hiccough), syrup (also sirup) and ketchup (also catchup or catsup), all three with a weak last vowel; makeup, startup, pileup and pushup (each also entered with a hyphen); warm-up, mix-up, follow-up, cover-up and stand-up (each also entered as one word); grownup (also grown-up), giddyup (also giddyap), layup (no entry), and a few words by our choice for a list young children use. SENTENCES are ours, name no person, and none repeats a sentence in another list of this site (checked on 14 October 2026). Spellings are American. Licence: own work

How it works

Six short words open this page: up, cup, pup, sup, yup and scup. Twenty-two longer ones follow, from teacup and cleanup to close-up, all with the short u of sun.

Read the full guide

Up word family words in five lists

After the six short words of List 1, List 2 joins another word to cup or up: teacup, eggcup, sunup, checkup, lineup, roundup, markup. List 3 keeps a hyphen, as in close-up, sit-up and runner-up. List 4 has up at the front or inside (upstairs, puppy, supper). List 5 ends in -oup with the vowel of moon: soup, group, recoup.

Cleanup or clean up: one word or two

The American Heritage Dictionary enters the nouns of List 2 as one word: a cleanup, a pickup, a backup. The action stays two words: clean up the room, pick up your coat, back up the file. Setup, lineup, roundup and breakup split the same way.

  • Cup, sup and up double the p before an ending: cupped, supping, upped.
  • Pup is short for puppy, the dictionary says, and a scup is a fish of the northwestern Atlantic.
  • To sup is to eat an evening meal. Sup and supper both come from Old French souper.

Questions and answers

Do syrup and ketchup rhyme with cup?

No. The American Heritage Dictionary ends both with a weak vowel, (əp), not the short u of cup: ketchup is (kĕch-əp). Each also has a second spelling, sirup and catsup, so neither is on these lists.

Is hiccup an up family word?

It looks like one, but the dictionary writes hiccup as (hĭk-əp), with the same weak vowel, and also spells it hiccough. It is left off the lists for both reasons.

Why does cupboard not sound like cup?

Its p is silent. The dictionary writes cupboard as (kŭb-ərd), so it starts like cub. Cupcake keeps the p, (kŭp-kāk), and is on List 4.

Can I print up word family worksheets?

Yes. Choose List 1 for the six short words or List 2 for teacup and cleanup, then print a Word list, a Test sheet, an ABC order sheet or a Missing letters sheet.

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