bottom-up

[bot-uhm--uhp]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or originating with the common people, nonprofessionals, or the lower ranks of an organization.

   The five-day workweek was a bottom-up movement that business leaders and politicians finally supported.

2. organized or proceeding from smaller, more detailed units to the larger, more general structure.

   His bottom-up approach to research involves immersing himself in communities to better understand the lives of local entrepreneurs.

bottom-up

adjective

1. from the lowest level of a hierarchy or process to the top

   a bottom-up approach to corporate decision-making

Word History and Origins

Origin of bottom-up¹

First recorded in 1930–35 as an adjective and in 1890–95 as an adverb, both deriving from the phrase “from the bottom up ”

Example Sentences

Built through a bottom-up molecular engineering strategy, they combine tightly controlled size with a defined number of surface ligands to create a multivalent platform with highly specific interactions at cellular receptors.

Read more on Science Daily

On the other hand, people who are a little bit below that level, they might feel a bit squished between bottom-up and top-down pressure.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The benefit to clients is marrying our top-down macroeconomic view with the bottom-up credit selection.

Read more on Barron's

While news organizations are in many ways top-down institutions—newsroom editors exercise an autocracy quite rare in other fields—in reality they are bottom-up, their product shaped by those who wield the digital pens.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The US military "excels" because there is a "bottom-up" culture where units on the ground can make decisions as the situation evolves and alter their fighting strategies, Dr Raska notes.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• reversed www.thesaurus.com
• upturned