Mix up means to confuse two things, to take one for the other: mix up two names. The noun a mix-up means a muddle or misunderstanding, when things go wrong because of someone's mistake.
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mix up + A and B; mix up + A with B; mix + them/it + up; a mix-up with/over + noun
- I always mix up affect and effect when I write in a hurry.
- People often mix me up with my sister because we have the same haircut.
- There was a mix-up at the hotel, and they gave our room to another family.
What changed
First versionSorry, I mixed the dates and booked the wrong flight.
RevisionSorry, I mixed up the dates and booked the wrong flight.
It's tempting to leave out up and say just mixed, but mix on its own means to combine things: paints, ingredients, drinks. Taking one thing for another is mix up, so the particle was added.
The noun is written with a hyphen, the verb as two words: There was a mix-up with our tickets, but They mixed up our tickets. A pronoun goes between mix and up: mix them up.
Your turn
I always ___ Anna and her twin sister because they wear the same glasses.
Show the answer
mix up — The sisters look alike, and the speaker takes one for the other: that's mix up. Mess up means to spoil something or get it badly wrong (I messed up the test), and it doesn't describe confusing two people.
Write about a time you mixed something up. Say what exactly you confused and what happened as a result.
Last week I mixed up the meeting times and arrived at the office an hour early.
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