DictionaryAI

make

MAYK/meɪk/

Formsmakes, making, made

Often confused with do

51 meanings of make

Practice

  1. 1
    build or produceverbtransitive
    To build, construct, produce, or bring something into being.

    The factory makes two thousand cars a week.

    She wants to make something with her hands.

    UsageMaterial takes of or out of (made of oak); something changed in the making takes from (made from grapes).

    Similarbuild, construct, produce, create, manufacture

    Oppositedestroy, dismantle

  2. 2
    perform an actverbtransitive
    To carry out, perform, or bring about an action or state named by the noun that follows: make a decision, make a dash, make peace.

    She made a dash for the door.

    The goalkeeper had to make a fine save.

    UsageFixed pairs to learn: make a decision, a mistake, a promise, but do homework, do a favor.

    Similarperform, execute

  3. 3
    verb
    To cause someone or something to be or seem a certain way, with an object and an adjective, noun, or participle.

    The rain made the road impassable.

    Too much salt will make the soup inedible.

    UsageTakes an object and then an adjective directly: it made me sad (not incorrect: made me to be sad), it made him angry.

    Similarrender, leave

  4. 4
    cause to actverb
    To cause or compel someone to do something, with a person and a bare verb.

    The teacher made us rewrite the whole essay.

    Nothing will make him change his mind.

    UsageNo to in the active (made her cry), but to in the passive (I was made to wait).

    Similarforce, compel, oblige

  5. 5
    cookverbtransitive
    To prepare or cook food or drink.

    He made pancakes for the whole team.

    Who's going to make the sandwiches?

    UsageTwo orders: make her a sandwich, or make a sandwich for her.

    Similarprepare, cook, fix

  6. 6
    formverbtransitive
    To constitute, amount to, or be enough to count as something.

    Four of these make a set.

    Two wrongs don't make a right.

    Similarconstitute, form, equal

    Note

    Nothing is built here: two people make a couple simply by being two. The sense survives in a proverb with an old word order, one swallow does not a summer make. There the object comes before the verb, and the shape now sounds deliberately proverbial. Counting uses such as this makes the third infraction shade into plain arithmetic, as in two and two make four.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

  7. 7
    earn or winverbtransitive
    To earn or gain money, points, a place in a team, or a status.

    He makes more in a month than I do in a year.

    Only two swimmers will make the final.

    Similarearn, gain, reach

    Oppositelose

    Note

    Winning a place belongs here as much as earning money. To make the choir, the team or the final is to be selected for it. Sports reporting pushes this to its limit: a player who did not even make the bench was not chosen even as a substitute.

  8. 8
    verbcolloquialtransitive
    To reach a place or get to an event, often by a stated time.

    If we hurry we'll make the last train.

    She made the meeting with minutes to spare.

    UsageUse make the meeting or make it to the meeting. Didn't make dinner can mean didn't attend or didn't cook it, depending on context.

    Similarcatch, reach

    Oppositemiss

    Note

    Arrival counted as success: you make a train, a meeting, a city by seven. A related nautical use is centuries old. Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica writes of sailors who can make no land of either side, here meaning that they cannot sight either riverbank.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica contains the cited wording about sailors. gutenberg.org
  9. 9
    verbtransitive
    To write, draw up, or compose.

    Before the voyage he made his will.

    The committee was asked to make a report by June.

    UsageUsual with a list, a will and notes: make a shopping list.

    Similarwrite, draft, compose

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of make apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Old English macian ("to make, build, work") became Middle English maken. It goes back through Proto-West Germanic *makōn and Proto-Germanic *makaz ("fit, suitable"), and perhaps to the Proto-Indo-European root *meh₂ǵ- ("to knead"). The word is related to "match", and Dutch maken and German machen are cognates.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  • Old English macian, meaning “to make, build, work”, developed into Middle English maken. en.wiktionary.org
  • The word goes back to Proto-West Germanic *makōn. en.wiktionary.org
  • The etymological chain includes Proto-Germanic *makaz, meaning “fit, suitable”. en.wiktionary.org
  • Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ǵ-, meaning “to knead”, is a proposed ultimate origin. en.wiktionary.org
  • Make is etymologically related to match. en.wiktionary.org
  • Dutch maken and German machen are cognates of English make. en.wiktionary.org