Other forms: made, making, makes
Make is what happens when something new comes out of your hands. You make a sandwich, make tea, make a mess, make a noise.
It reaches far past building things. Make also means to force (onions make me cry), to earn (he makes good money), to add up to (two and two make four) and to reach in time (we just make the last train). It sits inside dozens of fixed pairs you have to learn whole: make a decision, make a mistake, make friends, make sure, make sense, make the bed. The trap is make against do — you do homework, the washing-up and a job, but you make a plan, a promise and a phone call. The past tense is made, and as a noun the make of a car is the company that built it.
1verbmakeTo produce or build something that did not exist before.~80%
“He makes furniture out of wood taken from old barns.”
2verbcauseTo cause someone or something to do something, or to become something.~7%
“The smell of the bakery makes me hungry every morning.”
3verbearnTo earn money.~2%
“She makes more from the weekend market than from her job.”
4verbaddTo add up to a particular total or result.~7%
“Two and two make four.”
5verbmanageTo manage to reach a place, or to arrive in time.~2%
“If we leave now we can still make the six o'clock ferry.”
6nounbrandThe company or brand that produced a manufactured item.~2%
“What make is your washing machine?”
synonyms: brand
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense (2 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: create
Make comes from Old English macian, 'to build, make, work', and Proto-West Germanic *makōn — but one step further back sits Proto-Germanic *makaz, meaning 'fit, suitable, comfortable', with a Proto-Indo-European root suggesting kneading or being at ease. The oldest idea is not creation but fitting things together, which is why make and match are relatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*meh₂ǵ-
Proto-Germanic
*makaz — agreeable, comfortable, fit, suitable
Proto-West Germanic
*makōn — to build, make, work
Old English
macian — to build, make, work
Middle English
macen
English, today
make
Built from
From Middle English macen, machiæ, macian, macke, mak, make, maken, makiȝe, from Old English macian (“to build, make, work”), from Proto-West Germanic makōn (“to build, make, work”), from mak (“agreeable, comfortable, fit, suitable”), from Proto-Germanic makaz (“agreeable, comfortable, fit, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European meh₂ǵ-, meh₂ḱ- (“to knead”) or meg- (“to be comfortable, pleasant”). Related to match. 2 Cognate with Scots mak (“to make”), yol maak, maake (“to make”), frr maage, maaki, mååge (“to make”), stq moakje (“to make; to repair; to prepare; to preach; to earn”), West Frisian meitsje (“to make”), gsw mache (“to make; to do”), bar måcha, måchn (“to make; to do; to go; to cause; to play; to matter; to look”), cim machan (“to make”), Dutch and Low German maken (“to make”), German machen (“to make; to do; to go; to cause; to play; to fare; to look”), lb maachen, man (“to make; to do; to take; to equal; to put”), mhn mòchen (“to make”), wym mahha (“to make; to do”), Yiddish מאַכן (“to create, make; to do; to say”); also probably Irish mám (“yoke; duty, obligation; function, service”), Latin mācerō (“to soften; to weaken; to mortify; to torture”), Ancient Greek μάσσω (“to handle, knead; to wipe”), Bulgarian ма́жа (“to smear; to oil”), Czech mazat (“to lubricate; to spread; to smear; to scribble; to erase”), Polish mazać (“to smear; to scribble; to pule, whimper”), Russian ма́зать (“to oil; to paint; to smear; to soil; to miss”), Serbo-Croatian ма̏зати, mȁzati (“to smear; to dirty”), Ukrainian ма́зати (“to smear”), xcl մած (“glued together, joined; coagulated, curdled; adhesive, sticking; compact; dense”), Hindi मचाना (“to cause, raise, wreak”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA