MEANING
Proceeding from higher-level authority or general principles toward lower-level implementation or specific details.
Use it for
describing decisions imposed by higher authorities; analyzing an approach that starts with an overall theory; distinguishing direction of organization from local initiativeDescribes direction from authority or a general account toward implementation or particular details. Academic functions: Theory / Conceptual Language.
Words that belong together
- a top-down approach
- top-down decision-making
- top-down analysis
On the page
The policy relies on top-down decision-making rather than proposals developed by local participants.
The researcher uses a top-down analysis to examine how a general framework organizes the cases.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Word forms
- Base
- top-down
Usage notes
Usually before a noun. Hyphenate the adjective: a top-down approach. Not a separate entry from punctuation variants. No ordinary comparative or superlative. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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