Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

wake up and smell the coffee

/ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.19 in modern English

Syllables: wake up and smell the cof-fee
IPA: /ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/

46

Scrabble Score

23

Letters

2

Syllables

16

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself.

American usage; Informal

Example Sentences

"Your paper gains "notice" as an example of the use of English as it should not be written nor spoken. Wake up and smell the coffee."
"A few years back, when a wife told her husband to "wake up and smell the coffee," it usually was said in utter derision. Now, when there is coffee to smell, she shouts it to him in supreme delight."
"Wake up and smell the coffee, Dummy. You're a comfort station on a back-street detour. Send him on his way."
"Dear God, was she going to look at everybody who owned a truck with this sort of suspicion? “Come on, Heskell. Wake up and smell the coffee. They've become the singles bars of the nineties.[…]”"
"He had opened his eyes, which was what his first wife was always telling him to do—open your eyes, Al, wake up and smell the coffee—and seen that Rosalind was at least as unhappy as he was, […]"

Etymology

Probably a humorous elaboration of wake up (“to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand”), alluding to the fact that coffee is often consumed at breakfast time after waking up in the morning. The term was popularized by the American writer Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer (1918–2002), who used the pen name Ann Landers, in the syndicated newspaper advice column Ask Ann Landers.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/
British English: /ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/

Usage

American usage
Informal

Inflected Forms

wakes up and smells the coffee (present, singular) waking up and smelling the coffee (participle, present) woke up and smelled the coffee (past) woke up and smelt the coffee (past) woken up and smelled the coffee (participle, past) woken up and smelt the coffee (participle, past)

Synonyms

open one's eyes take the hint wake up and smell the ashes wake up and smell the decaf wake up and smell the roses

Questions

How do you pronounce wake up and smell the coffee?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/.
What does wake up and smell the coffee mean?: Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself.
Where does wake up and smell the coffee come from?: Probably a humorous elaboration of wake up (“to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand”), alluding to the fact that coffee is often consumed at breakfast time after waking up in the morning. The term was popularized by the American writer Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer (1918–2002), who used the pen name Ann Landers, in the syndicated newspaper advice column Ask Ann Landers.

How to pronounce wake up and smell the coffee

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