1
as in coping
to meet one's day-to-day needs
we're not rich, but we're making out all right
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in knowing
to have a clear idea of
I can't quite make out what she is trying to say
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in pretending
to take on a false or deceptive appearance
he tried to make out that he didn't mind losing his job, but friends suspected he was desperately worried
Synonyms & Similar Words
4
as in deriving
to form an opinion or reach a conclusion through reasoning and information
as best as I can make out, the police were informed of the incident but didn't think it was worth investigating
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of making out
The warmth from the Southwest will also create a drier-than-usual season with precipitation expected to be 50-74% lower than usual, making out-of-season wildfires possible, according to AccuWeather.
—
Paige Moore, AZCentral.com, 21 Oct. 2025
Last weekend, the Daily Mail published a series of photographs in which the American pop star Katy Perry was spotted making out on the upper deck of her boat, the Caravelle, with her apparent new love interest, the former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
—Naomi Fry, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2025
Hoping to better understand the demand for smutty scares, Hitchcock and his wife, Alma Reville (Olivia Williams), spend an interminable evening at the theater surrounded by people throwing popcorn and making out while the topless woman onscreen is tortured and killed in a masked man’s dungeon.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 4 Oct. 2025
Patrick took it surprisingly well, because Kacie kept making out with him and confirming that her choice had nothing to do with her feelings for him.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Oct. 2025
The two were caught passionately making out at the 2019 ACM Awards by the CBS cameras.
—Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2025
Whether through canny critique or open wist, shows about making out-of-fashion things can offer us space to predict, resist, and elegize our way through a dark and muddy cultural moment.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 23 Sep. 2025
Slade then reveals the alleged existence of a tape that includes not just the song but the sounds of Tamra and an unnamed ’90s pop star in the studio making out, having forgotten that the tape was running.
—Peter Larsen, Oc Register, 19 Sep. 2025
Hugo even snaps a shot of them making out on their break.
—Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 9 Sep. 2025
Paige Moore, AZCentral.com, 21 Oct. 2025
Last weekend, the Daily Mail published a series of photographs in which the American pop star Katy Perry was spotted making out on the upper deck of her boat, the Caravelle, with her apparent new love interest, the former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
—Naomi Fry, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2025
Hoping to better understand the demand for smutty scares, Hitchcock and his wife, Alma Reville (Olivia Williams), spend an interminable evening at the theater surrounded by people throwing popcorn and making out while the topless woman onscreen is tortured and killed in a masked man’s dungeon.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 4 Oct. 2025
Patrick took it surprisingly well, because Kacie kept making out with him and confirming that her choice had nothing to do with her feelings for him.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Oct. 2025
The two were caught passionately making out at the 2019 ACM Awards by the CBS cameras.
—Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2025
Whether through canny critique or open wist, shows about making out-of-fashion things can offer us space to predict, resist, and elegize our way through a dark and muddy cultural moment.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 23 Sep. 2025
Slade then reveals the alleged existence of a tape that includes not just the song but the sounds of Tamra and an unnamed ’90s pop star in the studio making out, having forgotten that the tape was running.
—Peter Larsen, Oc Register, 19 Sep. 2025
Hugo even snaps a shot of them making out on their break.
—Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 9 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for making out
Verb
-
His initial coping mechanism was to throw his water bottle in frustration.—
Roshane Thomas,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
-
Having survived cutbacks and Covid, employees prefer taking Zoom calls at home in their sweat pants rather than coping with traffic or office politics.—
Peter Bart,
Deadline,
23 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
At last weekend’s general assembly of Barcelona club members, Laporta tried to thread a delicate path when defending the plan to play a domestic game over 4,500 miles away, knowing that Tebas is not exactly popular with his team’s supporters.—
Dermot Corrigan,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
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Her mother, a pediatric critical care nurse, was working her shift at Hennepin County Medical Center, where several of the wounded were taken, before even knowing her children’s school was involved.—
Cindy Von Quednow,
CNN Money,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Choose a reason, such as pretending to be someone else.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
28 Oct. 2025
-
White, by contrast, is pretending to be one of America’s greatest musical icons, even doing his own singing.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
23 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Specifically, Larsson was searching for dentalium shells—the long, tubular shells deriving from dentaliums, a type of marine mollusk.—
Christian Allaire,
Vogue,
13 Oct. 2025
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In the years since, Wickelgren, Kass and others have reframed a host of other enumerative problems using motivic homotopy theory, deriving the relevant quadratic forms in various number systems.—
Joseph Howlett,
Quanta Magazine,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Hi hi hello, how is everyone doing this lovely Sunday?—
Rosalind Bowling,
Nashville Tennessean,
26 Oct. 2025
-
In Atlanta in 2018, young tight end Austin Hooper learned that Paulsen was also doing scouting reports on tight ends who were upcoming draft prospects for the staff and for his agent.—
Jourdan Rodrigue,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
The emerging discipline of geomythology is coming into its own, as scientists, historians, and other scholars see the rich potential for understanding how humans have made sense of their observations of nature over time.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
22 Oct. 2025
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Experts say there are biological and seasonal reasons behind the fall-time sleep disruption, and understanding them can help teens get better rest.—
Kris Ann Valdez,
Parents,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Marchenko’s game-deciding shootout goal was the second of his career.—
Aaron Portzline,
New York Times,
26 Oct. 2025
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But few, if any, are likely to have gone on the kind of journey Rachel Mae has been on since deciding to get her dogs tested.—
Jack Beresford,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Though historians have called for further research before making claims, the proposal of a script rooted in sign language might open the chance to explore a new way of deciphering Mayan art and show the ancient civilization to be even more sophisticated and efficient than scholars even knew.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
21 Sep. 2025
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Now, a team of international astronomers has succeeded in deciphering the gravitational wave signal, GW190412, to determine more about the collision and the resulting event that sent an infant black hole hurtling through space.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
16 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Making out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/making%20out. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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