top-down

American  

[top-doun] / ˈtɒpˌdaʊn /

adjective

1. relating to, originating with, or directed by those of highest rank.

   a centralized, top-down organization with a chain of command reporting up from every corner of the earth.

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

   Top-down investing looks at the big picture, or how the overall economy drives the markets, and then focuses on individual stocks.

3. Computers. noting or relating to a methodology used in the design and coding of programs that takes a high-level description of a problem and successively breaks it into smaller and simpler subunits.

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top-down British  

adjective

1. controlled, directed, or organized from the top

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Etymology

Origin of top-down

First recorded in 1940–45; 1970–75 top-down for def. 3; adjective use of the adverb phrase “from the top down ”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

top-down

The reporting of quarterly earnings, notes corporate finance expert Owen Lamont of Acadian Asset Management, was “a bottom-up historical phenomenon reflecting voluntary arrangements between firms and investors, not a top-down phenomenon imposed by law.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Meanwhile, the Deep South consisted of a landowning class, some of whom relocated from slave plantations in the Caribbean, who formed an "oligarchic, top-down society".

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

They were also building out an empire, and that empire functioned by top-down tyrannical rule.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026

But the larger lesson lies in how Fishtown made a comeback: not through a master plan or top-down government program, but by making private investment feasible.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Directly below was Harken Square, where people were moving this way and that, all of them appearing, from this top-down view, more round than tall.

From "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau