1
as in comprising
to be all the substance of
the book is made up of 20 chapters
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in devising
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in building
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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of making up
In the same time frame, the number of homes that are valued at $500,000 went from 5% to 25% of the city’s housing stock — making up a quarter of what’s available in Olathe.
—
Taylor O'Connor, Kansas City Star, 10 Jan. 2026
Arteta ended this block of matches before the international break by being adventurous against both Newcastle and West Ham, despite slightly different personnel making up that midfield unit.
—Art De Roché, New York Times, 5 Oct. 2025
Center, and the bourbon bars and distilleries making up Whiskey Row.
—Leo Bertucci, Louisville Courier Journal, 5 Oct. 2025
The Lumbee Tribe has 60,000 members in Robeson, Hoke, Scotland and Cumberland counties, making up the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River and the ninth largest in the country, the resolution says.
—Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 4 Oct. 2025
This stems from the concept of reparations in the popular consciousness being flattened to mean checks for Black people making up for the harms of slavery.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 13 Sep. 2025
Creators making up to $400,000 a year could claim some portion of the deduction.
—Bloomberg News, Boston Herald, 13 Sep. 2025
As of Wednesday, only 70,000 Palestinians had evacuated Gaza City out of approximately one million people, a senior Israeli official said, making up less than 10% of the total population.
—Ibrahim Dahman, CNN Money, 6 Sep. 2025
Commercial deals, such as the NFL’s billion-dollar TV contracts, however, are shared—making up a large portion of the NFL’s roughly $280 million annual per-team salary cap.
—Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Taylor O'Connor, Kansas City Star, 10 Jan. 2026
Arteta ended this block of matches before the international break by being adventurous against both Newcastle and West Ham, despite slightly different personnel making up that midfield unit.
—Art De Roché, New York Times, 5 Oct. 2025
Center, and the bourbon bars and distilleries making up Whiskey Row.
—Leo Bertucci, Louisville Courier Journal, 5 Oct. 2025
The Lumbee Tribe has 60,000 members in Robeson, Hoke, Scotland and Cumberland counties, making up the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River and the ninth largest in the country, the resolution says.
—Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 4 Oct. 2025
This stems from the concept of reparations in the popular consciousness being flattened to mean checks for Black people making up for the harms of slavery.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 13 Sep. 2025
Creators making up to $400,000 a year could claim some portion of the deduction.
—Bloomberg News, Boston Herald, 13 Sep. 2025
As of Wednesday, only 70,000 Palestinians had evacuated Gaza City out of approximately one million people, a senior Israeli official said, making up less than 10% of the total population.
—Ibrahim Dahman, CNN Money, 6 Sep. 2025
Commercial deals, such as the NFL’s billion-dollar TV contracts, however, are shared—making up a large portion of the NFL’s roughly $280 million annual per-team salary cap.
—Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for making up
Verb
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Rescue teams, comprising experts from SARA, HM Coastguard Chepstow, and Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, worked together to lower a firefighter to the ledge where the dog was trapped.—
Desiree Anello,
PEOPLE,
21 Jan. 2026
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The suspects were identified and arrested by a task force comprising multiple agencies across Colorado and the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office in California.—
Austen Erblat,
CBS News,
21 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The Panthers spent most of Saturday’s game (as well as their previous matchup with the Rams) devising ways to get McMillan and Coker running down the field against those small corners.—
Derrik Klassen,
New York Times,
14 Jan. 2026
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The 40-year-old cooks up ways to make quarterbacks miserable in his sleep, devising schemes that are meant to lure as much as they are intended to confuse.—
Dana O’Neil,
CNN Money,
10 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Lightning had grown from building a popular open source tool PyTorch Lightning, which helps researchers manage machine learning, to bundling software to help corporates like German chip company Infineon and advertising agency Monks manage building and tweaking large language models.—
Iain Martin,
Forbes.com,
21 Jan. 2026
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Crystal Cave is not a cave in the traditional sense, but rather the interior of the world's largest geode, discovered in 1897 by workers who were building a well.—
Cailey Rizzo,
Travel + Leisure,
21 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Nayar assembled a crew including stunt choreographer Kalai Kingson and music composing trio Shankar-Ehsan-Loy.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
21 Jan. 2026
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Kurds number some 7 million to 15 million, composing roughly 8% to 17% of the total population.—
Shukriya Bradost,
The Conversation,
13 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Both activities can be fairly ordinary hobbies—games of imagination not so different from crushing on a pop star or concocting stories about a film protagonist.—
Faith Hill,
The Atlantic,
17 Jan. 2026
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Later in the episode, Kody took aim at Janelle, accusing her once again of concocting a plan to try and sell Coyote Pass out from under Meri.—
Abigail Adams,
PEOPLE,
12 Jan. 2026
Verb
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When researchers abruptly changed the shape or layout of the tank, the previously active neural ensemble quieted down within minutes, while a new configuration of neurons rapidly took over—constructing an entirely new spatial map.—
Matt Emma,
USA Today,
24 Jan. 2026
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The TikTok tradeoff is dynamic scanning, selecting, and constructing in return for patience, credulity, and willingness to follow direction.—
Ryan Craig,
Forbes.com,
23 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Whereas Herbert is 0-2 in Chargers postseason games, Maye is making his first postseason appearance for the New England Patriots after assembling a most valuable player-caliber season.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Jan. 2026
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To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies?—
Allison Pecorin,
ABC News,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Created by Terry Nation, the man credited with inventing the Daleks, Blake’s 7 aired for four seasons on the BBC from 1978 to 1981.—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
19 Jan. 2026
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If your brain immediately starts inventing imaginary future scenarios, that’s often your sign the item has already served its purpose.—
Alesandra Dubin,
Southern Living,
17 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Making up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/making%20up. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.
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