MADE UP Synonyms: 197 Similar and Opposite Words

made-up 1 of 2

adjective

ˈmād-ˈəp

Definition of made-up

as in fictitious

not real and existing only in the imagination the bogeyman was one of those made-up monsters whose sole purpose was to threaten children

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made up

2 of 2

verb

past tense of make up

as in comprised

to be all the substance of the book is made up of 20 chapters

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as in devised

to create or think of by clever use of the imagination she keeps making up excuses as to why she hasn't yet finished the project

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as in built

to form by putting together parts or materials we'll have to make up the bookcase, which came in a box marked "some assembly required"

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of made-up

Adjective

That story was 100 percent insane and made-up, and not a word of it is true. — Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly, 6 Feb. 2026 And there's not one right way to do it, considering the holiday is made-up and the real thing is just around the corner. — Rachel Treisman, NPR, 19 Nov. 2025

Verb

The district is made up of an archipelago of 65 inhabited islands with some of the highest rates of HIV in Uganda. — Michal Ruprecht, NPR, 13 Aug. 2026 For one, primary elections often have many more undecided voters, and people pay much less attention to the races — meaning those who have not made up their minds headed into election day can be easily persuaded. — Elizabeth Robinson, NBC news, 13 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for made-up

Recent Examples of Synonyms for made-up

Adjective

The undercover analyst noted in a message that his fictitious 4-year-old brother would be home the next day, when the Perez meeting was expected.

— Emerson Clarridge, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 Aug. 2026
Final testing relied on fictitious data instead of the real records of millions of residents.

— Komal Goyal, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of fictitious

Verb

Last year, first-time visitors to Las Vegas comprised 10% of travelers, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's annual visitor profile study.

— James Powel, USA Today, 7 Aug. 2026
And of course the mis en scène — comprised in Season 4 of a palatial hotel on the Croisette and a luxurious hilltop hideaway — are as central to the plot as the characters.

— Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 4 Aug. 2026

Definition of comprised

Verb

But state and local planners devised a way to answer commuter’s growing concerns by converting Independence into a freeway.

— DJ Simmons, Charlotte Observer, 15 Aug. 2026
Once citizenship at birth begins turning on categories devised by executive officials, the certainty the 14th Amendment was intended to establish starts to disappear.

— Andy J. Semotiuk, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2026

Definition of devised

Verb

OpenAI is choosing to act on the possibility of the risk before fully confirming it, which is the framework doing what it was built to do.

— Ashish Bhatia, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2026
Scheffler has built a massive lead of more than 1,400 points over second-place Matt Fitzpatrick in the FedEx Cup standings.

— Dennis Esser, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2026

Definition of built

Adjective

Just before the pandemic, Manhattan’s MCC Theater staged a show called All the Natalie Portmans, about a gay Black teenage cinephile who envisions the actor as a kind of manic pixie imaginary friend.

— Hillary Busis, Vanity Fair, 17 Aug. 2026
Near the end of the story, Gardner pledges to kill his imaginary son to spare him war’s toll, but backs out upon his wish to be transformed into a noble soldier.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 Aug. 2026

Definition of imaginary

Verb

But the group had learned of the Phantom Orchestra, a group in Tbilisi, the capital of what is now Georgia, composed of musicians, poets and activists who had been barred from leaving the Soviet Union.

— Maura Fox, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2026
Bookended by drone shots of the Macedonian countryside and a somber cello refrain by Novogradska, this 86-minute doc is otherwise composed of scoreless interviews with subjects seated in front of black curtains and captured in medium range.

— Beatrice Loayza, Variety, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of composed

Verb

In it, Bugliosi lays out the prosecutorial theory — one concocted to put away a man for murder who didn’t actually commit the crimes — that Manson was trying to jump-start a race war, called Helter Skelter.

— Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Rolling Stone, 16 Aug. 2026
The removal of Maelor, however, snowballed into this moment where that character’s absence didn’t allow for that horrific book moment to be realized, so another set of reasons was concocted.

— Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026

Definition of concocted

Verb

Originally constructed in the 1860s to house two battalions of the British Army, Chelsea Barracks served as an important military base for more than 140 years before being decommissioned in 2008.

— Nick Scott, Robb Report, 22 Aug. 2026
The group has constructed more than 820 all-terrain wheelchairs; fabricated 900 orthotics and prosthetics; and distributed more than 740 hearing aids.

— Allie Torgan, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of constructed

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made tracks

made-up

made up

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“Made-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/made-up. Accessed 23 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of made-up

adjective

verb

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