1
as in comprising
to be all the substance of
the book is made up of 20 chapters
Synonyms & Similar Words
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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
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
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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Ukraine’s air force said that the Kremlin unleashed 629 air attack weapons on the country overnight, comprising 598 drones and 31 missiles.—
Svitlana Vlasova,
CNN Money,
28 Aug. 2025
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Related Stories To make this labor of love, Schnabel recruited a stellar cast comprising Oscar Isaac — who plays both Tosches and Dante — Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore and Franco Nero.—
Nick Vivarelli,
Variety,
28 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Bob-Waksberg and his collaborators retain their impressive gift for devising ludicrous comic set pieces to go alongside the heavier material.—
Alan Sepinwall,
Rolling Stone,
22 Aug. 2025
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Butorac has spent much of the past year quizzing, cajoling and nudging those stars, ultimately devising a format geared to their needs.—
Matthew Futterman,
New York Times,
19 Aug. 2025
Verb
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After years of building her personal brand, Beyoncé has achieved a level of fame and success that has earned her a large, fiercely loyal fan base, known simply as the BeyHive, also referred to as the Hive.—
Braedon Montgomery,
Forbes.com,
1 Sep. 2025
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His dad, Frank Beamer, spent three decades building a legacy as Virginia Tech’s greatest football coach, and Shane Beamer played there and coached for five seasons under his father.—
David Ubben,
New York Times,
1 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Time saved in data collection can be devoted to results, whether composing a report, translating documents, developing a marketing strategy or creating new software.—
Morey Haber,
Forbes.com,
27 Aug. 2025
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Williams, 93 years old and still composing music, should be left alone and left to do his more important creative tasks.—
Tim Greiving,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Not only is the kitchen fully on display but a separate alcove is given over to his highly technical lab, a play space dedicated to fermentation, aging, preserving and otherwise concocting.—
Ann Abel,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
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That isn't stopping Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report from concocting a massive trade proposal that would send the nine-time All-Star to the New York Knicks.—
Ricardo Klein,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Aug. 2025
Verb
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This approach requires constructing a clear, detailed vision of what the organization could look like once AI is embedded into its operating model.—
Peter Bendor-Samuel,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
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The research team attempted to show the practical application of their idea by constructing a green wall made of 56 plants that produced enough light to see text, images and a person located up to 10 centimeters (four inches) away, according to the study.—
Issy Ronald,
CNN Money,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The final step is assembling mixed teams of humans and AI.—
Ron Schmelzer,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
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Within months, Penn was contacted by Brent Lawrence, the CEO of Accelerate Sports, a boutique investment bank that specializes in assembling ownership groups to pursue expansion franchises.—
Mark Zeigler,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Yet, bizarrely, the TV show undercuts this angle by inventing a serial killer nurse from whole cloth, a move that shifts the blame away from systemic forces and toward a motiveless scoundrel.—
Graham Hillard,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
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Despite his resistance to participating in yet another documentary—and the show’s underuse of him, in what is either a callback to The Office or a failure to learn from its mistakes—Oscar ends up inventing number games.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
3 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Making up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/making%20up. Accessed 8 Sep. 2025.
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