top-down
adjective
1
: controlled, directed, or instituted from the top level
a top-down corporate structure
2
: proceeding by breaking large general aspects (as of a problem) into smaller more detailed constituents : working from the general to the specific
top-down programming
top-down design
Examples of top-down in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Scholars like William Easterly have long argued that top-down aid systems tend toward bureaucracy and bloat, often misallocating funds or reacting slowly to dynamic local conditions.
—
Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
New York’s benevolent liberalism of the Rockefeller years comes off as top-down benevolence, sociological benevolence, experience-free benevolence.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 23 Apr. 2025
State-building in this way also demanded greater participation and sacrifice from ordinary people than usually imagined in models of top-down state-building.
—Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025
Unlike other projects that have been proposed over the years, Metropolitan Park is not a top-down, take it or leave it development project.
—Tom Grech, New York Daily News, 18 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for top-down
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Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
New York’s benevolent liberalism of the Rockefeller years comes off as top-down benevolence, sociological benevolence, experience-free benevolence.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 23 Apr. 2025
State-building in this way also demanded greater participation and sacrifice from ordinary people than usually imagined in models of top-down state-building.
—Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025
Unlike other projects that have been proposed over the years, Metropolitan Park is not a top-down, take it or leave it development project.
—Tom Grech, New York Daily News, 18 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for top-down
Cite this Entry
“Top-down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/top-down. Accessed 1 May. 2025.
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