up·start
ˈəp-ˌstärt 
1
: one that has risen suddenly (as from a low position to wealth or power) : parvenu
especially
: one that claims more personal importance than is warranted
2
: a start-up enterprise
Examples of upstart in a Sentence
Noun
a young upstart from Harvard who thinks he knows more than the boss
having made their money in oil decades ago, they consider these billionaire dot-commers mere upstarts
Recent Examples on the Web
Alicia Park, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
The company, founded in 2021 by a breakaway faction from OpenAI, was viewed as an upstart that tailored its chatbots to the needs of businesses and developers, rather than consumers.
—Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2026
Those upstarts include the corporate card contender Ramp, which is raising funds at a $40 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
—Ben Weiss, Fortune, 27 May 2026
That sort of sample size is more than enough to infuse the young upstarts with extreme confidence, perhaps countering the massive gap in playoff experience that was supposed to be the Spurs’ undoing.
—Sam Amick, New York Times, 25 May 2026
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Noun
Key Background Larry Ellison cofounded Oracle in 1977 and built it from a database upstart into one of the most valuable software companies in the world.
—Alicia Park, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
The company, founded in 2021 by a breakaway faction from OpenAI, was viewed as an upstart that tailored its chatbots to the needs of businesses and developers, rather than consumers.
—Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2026
Those upstarts include the corporate card contender Ramp, which is raising funds at a $40 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
—Ben Weiss, Fortune, 27 May 2026
That sort of sample size is more than enough to infuse the young upstarts with extreme confidence, perhaps countering the massive gap in playoff experience that was supposed to be the Spurs’ undoing.
—Sam Amick, New York Times, 25 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for upstart
Cite this Entry
“Upstart.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/upstart. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
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