add up
Britishverb
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to find the sum (of)
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(intr) to result in a correct total
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informal (intr) to make sense
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to amount to
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Amount to an expected or correct total, as in These figures don't add up , meaning they are not correct. [Mid-1800s]
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Be consistent, make sense, as in I'm not sure that all this testimony will add up . [First half of 1900s]
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Assess, form an opinion of, as in He looked across the track and added up the competition . Also see add up to .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Still, the costs for providing education and other services for children can add up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Not doing so at the start of a person’s career can add up to between $1 million and $1.5 million in lost earnings over their lifetime, as Carnegie Mellon University economist Linda Babcock told NPR.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
But they do not add up to a conspiracy.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
"Yet even this treasury could not add up to a background of common sense sufficient to make expert systems smart enough to be experts," Denning notes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
Each word is a naked patch of him, and I want so badly to add up all the bread crumbs I have and make sense of him.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
