The Phrasal Verb 'Call Up' Explained
- Phrasal Verbs Explained
- Sep 5, 2025
- 10 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'call up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
'Call up' is a common phrasal verb in English, with several distinct meanings. In this article, I will explain these different meanings for you, from making a phone call to someone to retrieving something that is stored somewhere. In addition, I will provide you with lots of example sentences of how native speakers use it so that you can impress your English-speaking friends and colleagues with your amazing phrasal verb skills 😀 So, without further ado, let's make a start....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
CALL UP: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Medium |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms | Called up / Called up |
Separable? | Yes |
The phrasal verb 'call up' is formed by combining the verb 'to call' with the prepositional particle 'up' and so before we dive into the meanings of 'call up', let's first consider what these constituent words mean on their own.
The verb 'to call' is a regular verb, which is all about using our voices. The origins of the word are from old Norse (Scandinavian) and when it was first used in English, it meant to shout loudly, summon someone or name someone. These ancient meanings still exist in modern English and you will see later that some exist in phrasal verbs with 'call' too. One newer meaning of 'to call' that certainly did not exist in Old English was 'to contact someone by telephone', which is one of its frequently used meanings today and will also feature later in the article.
I called my son's name when I lost him in the supermarket.
You've been called to see the King and explain your actions.
What shall we call our new puppy?
My name is Katherine but everyone calls me Kate.
As soon as I heard the news, I called my Mum.
Can you call me when you get chance as I really need to speak to you.
Those of you who already have a good knowledge of English phrasal verbs will know that 'up' is a particle that features a lot in them. Perhaps most obviously, we can use 'up' to add an idea of an upwards movement or increase to an action in a phrasal verb (walk up, climb up). Moreover, 'up' can be used to add a wide variety of different meanings to phrasal verbs, like completion (eat up), improvement (pick up) and appearance (show up).
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'call up'....
MEANING 1: Literal
CEFR Language Level | A2 - Elementary |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To shout up, to yell up |
Separable? | No |
This first meaning may seem like quite an obvious one for you because it is simply the literal meaning of the combination of the two words 'call' and 'up', i.e. calling in an upwards direction to someone who is in a higher position than you.
We typically use 'call up' in this way when we want to get the attention of someone who is in the same building as us. If it is a small building or a house and the other person is a floor or two above us, we use our voice to get their attention and call up to them.
Less frequently, if you are in a taller building like a skyscraper and you need to contact someone who is on a higher floor than you, you can also use 'call up' to talk about phoning them....however we will cover telephones more in the next section!
Note that when used in this way, 'call up' is often followed by the extra preposition 'to' and is not normally separated.
Sophie called up to her brother, who was still in his room upstairs.
I called up the stairs to let my husband know that dinner was ready.
Luke called up to his mother from the hallway below.
Sam and Lucy called up through the open window to their friend on the balcony.
Michelle called up the staircase, asking if anyone was home.
Paul called up to his colleague Jamie on the 10th floor to see if he wanted to go for a drink after work.
Another way that we can use 'call up' in a literal way is when we ask or invite someone to move from a lower level and join us on the higher level. A good example of this would be the stage at a concert or theatre. If the performer calls a member of the audience up on stage, he or she asks the person to come and join them.
Note that we can also use 'call up' to ask someone to go to the front of something, typically a large room where there are lots of other people for example a church or a conference.
The singer called the fan up on stage.
I remember when I was called up on stage at a gig; I was so scared.
The graduates were called up one by one to collect their diplomas from the university dean.
MEANING 2: To telephone someone
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Mainly American English |
Potential synonyms | To telephone, to call, to ring (up), to phone (up), to buzz, to give someone a ring |
Separable? | Yes |
Let's now move on to our second meaning of 'call up', which is one that I think that many of you may be familiar with and this is simply 'to contact someone by telephone'.
Firstly, you should note that this is an American English usage and some common synonyms that you are likely to hear in British English for this instead are 'to ring (up)', 'to phone (up) and 'to give someone a ring'. Be aware that 'call up' is also understood and used in British English too, just not as commonly as on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
You may be wondering why we use 'call up' when the verb 'to call' means exactly the same thing. To be honest, I am not sure why we started adding the additional word 'up', however note that it does not change the meaning of the verb in any way when you do use it.
On a grammatical level, 'call up' is separable and it is possible to 'call someone up' as well as to 'call up someone', however I would say that the separable usage is the more common of the two. Note that if using an object pronoun (me, him etc.) then it must go between 'call' and 'up'.
I’ll call Sarah up tonight to see how she’s doing.
Could you call up the hotel and confirm our reservation?
My ex-husband called me up yesterday just to chat.
If you have any questions whatsoever, just call me up.
Rebecca promised to call her grandmother up more often.
I’m going to call up the electrician to enquire about getting the lights fixed.
Don’t forget to call your boss up and let him know you’ll be late.
They called up their friends to invite them to the engagement party.
MEANING 3: To be ordered to join the military
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To enlist, to conscript, to mobilise |
Separable? | Yes |
The third meaning of 'call up' is one that some of you may be able to identify with if your country has a programme of compulsory national military service because it means 'to be ordered to join the military'.
As I mentioned in the Basics section, one of the meanings of the verb 'to call' is to summon someone, or in other words, to order someone to come to a specified place. This usage of 'to call' is quite rare in modern English as there are not many times that the majority of people are summoned or called to be in a specific place. One exception to this however is with the armed forces and when we talk about being summoned to join the military, we use the phrasal verb 'call up' rather than 'call' on its own.
There are three main scenarios in which we tend to use this application of 'call up': the first is when your country has a programme of national service that young adults must participate in and the second is when your country goes to war and you are called up to fight or assist in the military action.
On a grammatical note, this application is also separable. Furthermore, it is common to hear it used in the passive voice as we often use it to talk about our own experiences and those of people whom we know, as they are the ones who receive the action.
Active example sentences....
The government called up thousands of recruits after the invasion.
The army plans to call its reserves up to strengthen the front lines.
Authorities initially called up men between the ages of 18 and 25.
The navy has called experienced sailors up to man the new fleet.
During the crisis, the president called up additional troops.
In response to the threat, military officials called up more than 100,000 soldiers.
Passive example sentences....
During the war, thousands of young men and women were called up to serve in the army.
Pete was called up for military service just after his eighteenth birthday.
The government announced that reservists might be called up if the conflict escalates.
Jane's father was called up during World War II.
The soldier had already completed his military service when he was unexpectedly called up again.
In times of national emergency, citizens may be called up to defend their country.
The third and final scenario in which this application of 'call up' is used is in relation to sports teams. If someone is called up to play in a sports team, it means that they are selected by the coach or manager to play in a match. Note that this tends to be used more to talk about higher level competitions, particularly national teams. As with the military examples, it is very common for this one to be used in the passive voice.
The team manager decided to call two junior players up from the reserves.
The federation called up several young athletes to join the senior squad.
Melanie was unexpectedly called up for the World Cup qualifiers.
Louie was thrilled to be called up for the Olympic bobsleigh squad.
MEANING 4: To retrieve something that has been stored
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To bring up, to retrieve, to recall, to remember, to recollect, to dredge up, to invoke |
Separable? | Yes |
We will finish the meanings of the phrasal verb 'call up' with one that I have given quite a general title, which is 'to retrieve something that is stored somewhere'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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The reason that I wrote that this is quite a general title is because there are lots of different ways and scenarios in which you can use this application, however all of them involve retrieving something from a place of storage.
Perhaps the most commonly used of these sub-applications of 'call up' is in relation to IT and computers. If you call something up on a computer, such as data, an image or a file, you cause it to appear on the screen so that it is visible (in the same way as you can use 'bring up'). The idea here is that the data is stored somewhere on the hard drive or a cloud and can be retrieved from there to be viewed on the screen.
You can call up last year’s sales report from the server in just a few clicks.
Laura quickly called the document up on her laptop to show the team.
The system lets you call up old or archived messages whenever you need them.
Bobby called up the presentation slides that were stored in the cloud.
Just call up the customer’s profile by entering their ID number and pressing submit.
Another place where we store things is in our heads in the form of memories, many of which are stored in remote parts of our brains and we can also use 'call up' here to talk about when we see, hear, smell, taste or feel something that evokes a memory from the past. It could be an old photograph, the smell of a perfume or an old song that you have not heard for many years; whatever it is though, the end result is that it unlocks a memory from somewhere deep in your brain and makes you remember it again. Note that this is often quite a poetic or literary usage.
The old photograph called up memories of Helen's school friends.
Hearing that song always calls up images of my grandfather in my mind.
The novel’s vivid descriptions call up images of people who have been long forgotten.
John's son's mannerisms called up the figure of his late father.
Lastly, for those of you who believe in the supernatural, it is also possible to use 'call up' to talk about when ghosts or spirits are summoned from another realm (I guess they aren't really in storage in this case). Again, this usage is pretty rare and is one that can be found most often in novels, stories and movies etc.
The sorcerer attempted to call up the spirit of the dead queen.
Legend has it that the ritual can call up demons from the underworld.
They gathered at midnight to try and call up the ghost of their ancestor.
BONUS: The noun 'call-up'
One last thing to mention before I finish the post is that the noun 'call-up' also exists and to explore this further, we need to go back to the third application that we looked at (to be summoned to join the military).
In brief, the noun 'call-up' can be used to talk about the action of calling people up to join the armed forces e.g. a military call-up. In addition, we can also use it for the action of selecting players and athletes to be on sporting teams or squads.
The government announced a mass call-up of reservists to fight.
Lesley's football career was interrupted by a military call-up.
Many families were torn apart by the sudden call-up of young men and women.
Jim's impressive form at club level led to an international call-up.
Floella earned her first national team call-up at just 18 years of age.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'call up'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'call up'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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