start-up

noun

ˈstärt-ˌəp 

variants or startup

often attributive

1

: the act or an instance of setting in operation or motion

2

: a fledgling business enterprise

Examples of start-up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The mathematician Ken Ono, who left academia for an AI start-up called Axiom Math, was scheduled to give a talk. — Jordana Cepelewicz, Quanta Magazine, 5 Oct. 2026

The Beijing entrepreneur spent the summer as chief financial officer of a start-up selling digital scales. — Arkansas Online, 3 Oct. 2026

In the early 1990s, Gordon Getty seeded Newsom’s Napa Valley wine start-up, PlumpJack, which Newsom launched with Gordon’s son Billy and named after an opera Gordon had composed. — Joe Hagan, Vanity Fair, 30 Sep. 2026

Deep Tech is a broad term used for start-ups in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, drones and space tech. — Priyanka Salve, CNBC, 29 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for start-up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup