racks up

verb

present tense third-person singular of rack up
1
as in scores
to gain (as points or runs in a game) as credit towards one's total number of points having racked up a huge number of points in the short program, the figure skater would have to have a disastrous long program in order to miss out on a medal

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in wins
to obtain (as a goal) through effort racked up their second consecutive Super Bowl victory

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 racks up The team that racks up 13 points is declared the champion. — Jim Harrington, Mercury News, 20 Sep. 2025 Leon Thomas racks up nominations across the board. — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 7 Nov. 2025 And hey, if this movie racks up the views, perhaps the next tale will make it to theaters, with bigger co-stars to boot. — Mark Meszoros, Boston Herald, 28 May 2026 If an individual racks up too many points in a certain timeframe, their license can be suspended. — William Melhado, Sacbee.com, 26 Sep. 2025 As Pratt’s campaign racks up viral attention and climbs in visibility, some figures in Los Angeles’s entertainment and donor circles appear increasingly comfortable treating his candidacy like a legitimate political and cultural force. — Maxwell Adler, Vanity Fair, 13 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for racks up
  1. scores
  2. wins
  3. achieves
  4. attains
  5. gains
  6. makes
Verb
  • Alex Warren Charts Two Hits This Week Warren scores two hits on this week's Adult Contemporary chart.
    — Hugh McIntyre, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • Morocco players celebrate after Ismael Saibari scores the team's fifth and winning penalty kick against the Netherlands yesterday.
    — David Hickey, NBC news, 30 June 2026
Definition of scores
Verb
  • Novak Djokovic wins his second Wimbledon title and denies Roger Federer his record eighth by holding off the Swiss star in five sets.
    — Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2026
  • Holloway, conversely, has been more active, going 5-3 since McGregor's last octagon appearance, including BMF title wins.
    — Trent Reinsmith, Forbes.com, 5 July 2026
Definition of wins
Verb
  • The physical configuration achieves passive safety operational profiles by relying on subcritical physics variables and inherent material limitations.
    — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 3 July 2026
  • How Clert’s ambitious adaptation achieves this, in under 90 minutes to boot, is best experienced in real time.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 1 July 2026
Definition of achieves
Verb
  • By the end of the novel, Sun Wukong attains Buddhahood.
    — Frannie Comstock, Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 May 2026
  • But if a person seeking status is already wealthy or attains corporate sponsorship, for instance, a viable pathway to citizenship opens up, even if only slightly.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2026
Definition of attains
Verb
  • Assign someone on your team to track which standard gains adoption and position your organization to participate early, before path dependencies lock in around you.
    — Sandy Carter, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • These worker gains date from April settlements reached just in time to avert a strike.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2026
Definition of gains
Verb
  • The banquet makes a bold visual comparison of the two women, in fact.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 6 July 2026
  • Franke pointed to Franco-German defense projects as an example of how national political incentives can slow cooperation, even when joint production makes strategic sense.
    — Elsa Ohlen, CNBC, 6 July 2026
Definition of makes

Browse Nearby Words

racks
racks up
rack up
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Racks up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/racks%20up. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All