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Synonyms

from the ground up

Idioms  

  1. From the very beginning; also, completely, thoroughly. For example, We've had to learn a new system from the ground up, or The company changed all of the forms from the ground up. This expression alludes to the construction of a house, which begins with the foundation.

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.

"Everything has to be reviewed from the ground up with one objective: zero tolerance."

From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026

“If the company can now redesign their operations from the ground up to be AI-forward, their potential cost and performance advantage could be insurmountable,” Shmulik wrote.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 16, 2026

Aguado explains that this approach allows researchers to construct the system from the ground up.

From Science Daily • Feb. 16, 2026

"A lot of things have to be scrapped completely and rebuilt from the ground up," she tells the BBC.

From BBC • Feb. 15, 2026

For a man who had built his fortune from the ground up and seen it demolished overnight, he had been so hopeful.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

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.