bottom-up

adjective

bot·​tom-up ˈbä-təm-ˈəp How to pronounce bottom-up (audio)
: progressing upward from the lowest levels (as of a stratified organization or system)
bottom-up management

Examples of bottom-up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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.
There’s a very strong bottom-up feedback cycle that works, and is really important for us as a direct-to-consumer business. — Jean E. Palmieri, Footwear News, 4 May 2026 Instead, synthetic cells are built through a bottom-up engineering approach. — Tara Deans, The Conversation, 8 July 2026 Design from the bottom-up, starting with individual sub-functions. — Rohit Kapoor, Forbes.com, 7 July 2026 This is surprising, to say the least—in our suburban corner of the Milky Way, far from the bustling core, stars form from the top-down collapse of giant gas clouds, not the bottom-up agglomeration of smaller objects. — Phil Plait, Scientific American, 5 June 2026 See All Example Sentences for bottom-up

Word History

First Known Use

1930, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bottom-up was in 1930

Rhymes for bottom-up

See All Rhymes for bottom-up

Browse Nearby Words

bottom tool
bottom-up
bottom water
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bottom-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bottom-up. Accessed 10 Jul. 2026.

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