add up
Britishverb
-
to find the sum (of)
-
(intr) to result in a correct total
-
informal (intr) to make sense
-
to amount to
-
Amount to an expected or correct total, as in These figures don't add up , meaning they are not correct. [Mid-1800s]
-
Be consistent, make sense, as in I'm not sure that all this testimony will add up . [First half of 1900s]
-
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.
"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
Lackluster hitting paired with two more errors add up to the Dodgers being swept for the first time this season in a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
He said the "lone impostor" explanation did not add up.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
But no matter how you slice the numbers, they add up to a company that has become obsessed with talent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
While I’d been bringing in a little extra cash babysitting, Brian was cutting other people’s weeds, and Lori had a paper route, it didn’t add up to much.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
