phrasal verb · neutral
make up
/meɪk ʌp/MAKE·up
task1
to form or constitute a part of a whole (often used about percentages or proportions)
Examples
“Foreign students make up almost 30% of the university population.”
“Women make up the majority of the workforce in that sector.”
“These three categories make up the remainder of the sample.”
Band 8 sentence
“International students make up roughly a third of the intake, while domestic students account for the rest.”
Collocations
- make up X% (of)
- make up the remainder / make up the majority
Word family
make up phrasal verbmakes up / made up / making up verb forms
Common mistakes
make up of 40% of the sample→make up 40% of the sample
Women make ups the majority→Women make up the majority
Say it for a higher band
5be / include→6compose→7+make up
Synonyms
compose
constitute
Easily confused
be made up of
“The committee is made up of experts from three fields.”
Related words
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In Comparing proportions
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