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"
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of making up
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
Utility rates could rise as Kentucky LG&E and KU, together making up the state's largest utility, predict electricity demand to grow by up to 45% by 2032 compared to last year, driven mostly by data centers, the Courier Journal reports.
—Sara Chernikoff, The Courier-Journal, 5 Aug. 2025
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
Utility rates could rise as Kentucky LG&E and KU, together making up the state's largest utility, predict electricity demand to grow by up to 45% by 2032 compared to last year, driven mostly by data centers, the Courier Journal reports.
—Sara Chernikoff, The Courier-Journal, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for making up
Verb
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House and Senate appropriators released a nearly $180 billion package comprising three funding bills on Monday, slimming Congress‘s chances of entering another government shutdown.—
Rachel Schilke,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Jan. 2026
-
The West Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association is one of the groups comprising the Neighborhoods of East Fort Worth Alliance.—
Matthew Adams,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
5 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Companies are actively devising strategies to counteract muscle loss in people taking the drugs.—
Isabella Cueto,
STAT,
29 Dec. 2025
-
Sondheim got to work at eight o’clock one night, devising a version of the murder game in which all the players would have to use their wits to untangle the mystery.—
Michael Schulman,
New Yorker,
15 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Phelps was also lauded for expanding NASCAR's international footprint, securing long-term media rights and charter agreements, and building a leadership team that is focused on building the future of stock car racing with fan experience at its core.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
7 Jan. 2026
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The Russian military in recent years has been restoring old Soviet infrastructure in the Arctic and building new facilities.—
Danica Kirka,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Marco Beltrami is composing the score.—
Lexi Carson,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Oct. 2025
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Drilling in pursuit of natural gas and oil in Wyoming has shown that the sandstone rock composing the Lance Formation is very deep beneath the mummies, measuring more than 1,000 meters (over 3,200 feet).—
Paul C. Sereno,
The Conversation,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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China has also been concocting a pretext for action.—
Charlie Campbell,
Time,
23 Oct. 2025
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But in the late 1800s, food companies began concocting products that were wildly different from anything people could make themselves.—
Alice Callahan,
New York Times,
16 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Several tech players are already constructing private energy plants for their own use as part of their data center buildouts, so there is nothing radical about Democrats insisting on tying approvals for data centers to bearing the cost of enhancing the public grid.—
Tom Rogers,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 Nov. 2025
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And Laurel Street Residential is constructing a mixed-income building.—
Desiree Mathurin,
Charlotte Observer,
4 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The exhilarating Christmas Eve in Miller's Point wastes no time in assembling its massive cast of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, and pet lizards.—
Randall Colburn,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 Nov. 2025
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Tony Vitello will be tasked with assembling a new group of pitching coaches.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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This geometric architecture may even explain how complex organisms evolved so rapidly — not by inventing new genes, but by rearranging the ways existing ones are used.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
29 Oct. 2025
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But truths go ignored, the film argues, when everyone prefers inventing realities for themselves.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
22 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Making up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/making%20up. Accessed 9 Jan. 2026.
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