MAKING UP Synonyms: 131 Similar and Opposite Words

making up

verb

present participle of make up

as in comprising

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

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

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"

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 up From female directors making up 18-19 percent of film production to more than 30 percent. — Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 23 July 2026 In 2021, Atrium’s presentation to the city and counted said a majority of the units would be for those making up to 50% AMI. — Desiree Mathurin, Charlotte Observer, 9 July 2026 Medicaid now covers families making up to 138% of the federal poverty level. — Nick Coltrain, Denver Post, 25 June 2026 Congress has to keep making up the gap with general taxpayer funds. — Camila Domonoske, NPR, 28 May 2026 The timing of the hearing, coming less than three weeks before the primary election, throws a spotlight on the scandal just as voters are making up their minds. — Sharon Bernstein, Sacbee.com, 14 May 2026 So far this year through April 19, 29 of the city’s 201 shooting victims have been under 18 making up 14% of the victims, according to the NYPD. — Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 30 Apr. 2026 Businesses run by women are beginning to dominate the state’s economy, making up 40% statewide. — Tribune News Service, Baltimore Sun, 16 Apr. 2026 San Francisco, for instance, now offers interest-free loans of up to $500,000 to first-time homebuyers making up to $218,200 annually. — The Week Us, TheWeek, 19 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for making up

Verb

That harnesses a network of roughly 200 task forces comprising over 4,000 personnel from federal, state and local agencies.

— Jason M. Blazakis, The Conversation, 22 July 2026
Items in the all-day menu include delicious mini Wagyu beef sliders, a wild mushroom ravioli, and an artisan charcuterie board comprising Iberico ham, truffle salami, chorizo picante, and cornichons.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 16 July 2026

Definition of comprising

Verb

Ten years on, after devising the victorious Trojan Horse gambit, Ulysses attempts to return to Ithaca and the pining Penelope, whose palace has been overrun with scheming suitors seeking her hand.

— Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 16 July 2026
Feynman was a graduate student there at the time and threw himself into the debate with gusto, even devising an experiment in the cyclotron laboratory to test his hypothesis.

— Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 13 July 2026

Definition of devising

Verb

Nasdaq has separately pushed regulators toward near-continuous trading hours, and the NYSE is building dedicated infrastructure meant to support activity around the clock.

— Mike Cahill, Forbes.com, 23 July 2026
The next few years will show whether the space industry really leaves disposable satellites behind and starts building them to be caught and repaired, or simply gets neater about throwing them away, designing them to burn up on the way down.

— Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba, The Conversation, 22 July 2026

Definition of building

Verb

The dots composing the words move up the screen while the rest of the pinpoints move downward, generating a visual opposition that the human mind can detect and discern.

— Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 16 July 2026
Abrams is doing it all this time — writing, directing, producing, and even, for the first time, composing the original score.

— Brian Welk, IndieWire, 15 July 2026

Definition of composing

Verb

And she’s spent a decade scaling her brand into an industry disrupter; Ellsworth began concocting prebiotic drinks in 2015, founding her business just one year later.

— Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 11 May 2026
According to the report, workers illegally pocketed between $20,000 and more than $41,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans from a massive federal COVID-19 pandemic relief effort – some by concocting companies that didn't exist to pocket federal assistance funds.

— Chris Tye, CBS News, 15 Apr. 2026

Definition of concocting

Verb

To replace them, Russia is constructing the Leningrad-II nuclear facility at a neighboring site, which will house four VVER-1200 units, with the aim of supplying power till the 2080s, and possibly another two decades with extensions.

— Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 16 July 2026
But SpaceX has plowed ahead, constructing a launchpad and other infrastructure to host Starships.

— Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 16 July 2026

Definition of constructing

Verb

Why hardware is notoriously difficult To build and ship a family of new devices, the Ive-OpenAI alliance will need to be hyper-focused, including assembling a manufacturing system from scratch.

— Emily Forlini, Fortune, 22 July 2026
Microsoft's Agent Operating System Rather than focusing exclusively on the model layer, Microsoft is assembling what increasingly looks like an operating system for agents.

— Francis Sideco, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026