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

Currently, the revenues being generated by AI companies and many of the data center operators that are rapidly expanding in order to serve them, are nowhere near big enough to cover their build-out costs. —Jim Edwards, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2025

The world is racing to double, if not triple, the entire data center capacity that has been built over the last forty years, Pankaj Sachdeva told CNBC, McKinsey senior partner in technology, with McKinsey estimating that build-out will cost up to $7 trillion by 2030. —Tasmin Lockwood, CNBC, 27 Nov. 2025

But for now, Mourer is focused on the build-out. —Matthew Geiger, Denver Post, 27 Nov. 2025

Centralized systems can turn top-down directives into rapid, large-scale build-out. —William Burke-White, Time, 20 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1902, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for build-out

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