bottom-up

adjective

bot·​tom-up ˈbä-təm-ˈəp 

: 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

The secret to this quiet performance is a bottom-up airflow design that draws cool ambient air through an intake ring at the edge of the circular base and then up through the heat-generating hardware. — Brian Westover, PC Magazine, 1 Oct. 2026

With its bottom-up view of history, the book emphasizes the power of grassroots movements to effect social change. — Barbara Spindel, Christian Science Monitor, 1 Oct. 2026

From a bottom-up perspective, there are widespread signs of short-term downside exhaustion per the DeMARK Indicators for utility stocks. — Katie Stockton, CNBC, 28 Sep. 2026

Other scientists go bottom-up, mimicking in a lab what Earth’s environment might have been like billions of years ago to try to produce the complex chemistry that became biology, as Miller and Rheinstädter have done. — Sarah Scoles, Scientific American, 15 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1930, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for bottom-up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup