MAKING OUT Synonyms: 138 Similar and Opposite Words

making out

verb

present participle of make out

as in coping

to meet one's day-to-day needs we're not rich, but we're making out all right

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in knowing

to have a clear idea of I can't quite make out what she is trying to say

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in pretending

to take on a false or deceptive appearance he tried to make out that he didn't mind losing his job, but friends suspected he was desperately worried

Synonyms & Similar Words

as in deriving

to form an opinion or reach a conclusion through reasoning and information as best as I can make out, the police were informed of the incident but didn't think it was worth investigating

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 making out But Turek knows the race against Hinson is making out to be one of the most competitive Senate contests in the country. — Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 3 Nov. 2026 Likewise, this season, dancers making out at Diesel made spectators part of the performance. — Joan Kennedy, Vogue, 12 Oct. 2026 That’s no longer what, a few years ago, might have been described as a cautious approach, not when audiences are making out-of-nowhere titles like Obsession and Backrooms into buzzy hits and craving something new. — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2026 And then the other thing was that my friends who were in the audience told me that people in the audience were making out, not only dancing, but actually making out. — Shaad D’souza, Pitchfork, 7 Oct. 2026 Axl eventually contacted Vance, my DP, directly to shoot the footage of him and two girls making out in the car. — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2026 The book has the teens making out the first night things went from friends to something more, but the show took it to another level with Bret and Debbie having sex on a lounge chair at a party. — Entertainment Weekly, 13 Aug. 2026 On the night of the Sex Purge, the streets are flooded with attractive, thin, largely heterosexual couples making out all over the place. — Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026 This surge is driven by state funding compacts and a commitment to growing California undergraduate enrollment, making out-of-state admission increasingly competitive. — Christopher Rim, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for making out

Verb

Lake County families, like those across the nation, are coping with higher prices for gasoline, groceries, housing and health care.

— Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2026
Harvard Health’s advice on coping with holiday grief suggests adjusting celebrations or starting new rituals when the old ones feel too heavy.

— Ashley Lynch, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 29 Oct. 2026

Definition of coping

Verb

Reliability includes knowing when an arrangement needs to change.

— Tarot.com, The Orlando Sentinel, 6 Nov. 2026
Our community is dying; there’s an underlying sense of desperation, grief and pride that can both protect and suffocate out of a need to survive – this film is ultimately a love letter to us, with a sense of knowing.

— Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of knowing

Verb

The shooting prompted national media coverage, with news outlets in Georgia describing Brayden as an outgoing child and a fan of Spider-Man who loved playing as the superhero by pretending to shoot webs and jump around.

— Cristóbal Reyes, The Orlando Sentinel, 5 Nov. 2026
Honor isn't pretending that the Magic 9 can go toe-to-toe with Hollywood-grade camera rigs.

— Kimberly Gedeon, PC Magazine, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of pretending

Verb

There is just enough wry humor—think Shaun of the Dead—sprinkled throughout to keep things from getting too grim, often deriving from Bryan’s cluelessness and general lack of skills.

— Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 22 Sep. 2026
The Chiefs finished dead last in the NFL with 362 yards deriving from explosive rushes last season.

— Sam McDowell, Kansas City Star, 15 Sep. 2026

Definition of deriving

Verb

If the idea of doing surgery on a raw turkey gives you a stress rash, ask your butcher to do it—even at the supermarket.

— Andy Baraghani, Bon Appetit Magazine, 5 Nov. 2026
Even while every utopia contains the seeds of its opposite, so too does any dystopia provide, even briefly or contingently, intimations of a different way of doing things.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of doing

Verb

The model provides a baseline for understanding what a planet’s atmosphere might look like without life.

— Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026
The key is understanding your audience’s habits, wants and needs, then communicating with them in the right places.

— Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 30 Oct. 2026

Definition of understanding

Verb

As for 5-star quarterback Julian Lewis, who was demoted last week, there seems to be more to the situation than Deion is intentionally letting on.

— Trey Wallace OutKick, FOXNews.com, 5 Oct. 2026
But if the contract has more to do with his absence than the Steelers are letting on?

— Mike DeFabo, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of letting on

Verb

Martin supported the head tax and was the deciding vote recently upholding the mayor’s veto of an ordinance that would have required 30 of 50 aldermen to support future bond authorizations.

— The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 1 Nov. 2026
From deciding where to bury them to choosing a place to scatter ashes, families might have questions about what California law allows.

— Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 1 Nov. 2026