build-out

noun

ˈbild-ˌau̇t 

variants or less commonly buildout

plural build-outs also buildouts

1

a

: work done to make a structure or system ready for use or to bring a construction or development project to a completed state

When the build-out of the campus is complete, as many as 7,500 students will attend class there.

—Janis L. Magin

b

: work done to expand a system (such as a telecommunications system)

The buildout of new infrastructure for digital cellular telephony is at such an early stage that it's impossible to predict what the performance of some of the systems will be.

—Brian C. Fenton

c

: a project or process involving such work

Of course, the Chinese are traveling and spending more in their own country too, in part because of a gigantic infrastructure build-out; China will have constructed more high-speed-rail capacity by the end of the decade than is currently operating in the rest of the world, some 10,000 miles' (16,000 km) worth.

—Bill Saporito

2

: a state in which an area has been fully developed

At build-out, the community is planned to include retail, restaurant and office space, a hotel, urban-style and loft apartments, townhomes, and condominiums.

—The Flower Mound (Texas) Leader

Examples of build-out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But now those companies are increasingly borrowing money to fund AI build-out. —Jim Edwards, Fortune, 3 Oct. 2025

The build-out was massive, yet Wall Street gave it no credit. —Jim Cramer, CNBC, 1 Oct. 2025

In total, the project will result in 22,514 additional daily car trips at build-out for all use types — entertainment, commercial and residential — during a typical sports event or concert, a local mobility analysis prepared by engineering consulting firm Kimley Horn found. —Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Sep. 2025

Critics also claim the deal doesn’t include stipulations like a cap on how much Entergy could charge utility customers for the construction of the gas plants and transmission lines in Meta’s data center build-out—a concern as massive AI data centers can cause utility bills to spike. —Roshan Abraham, Wired News, 22 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for build-out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout