up·start
ˈəp-ˌstärt 
1
: one that has risen suddenly (as from a low position to wealth or power) : parvenu
especially
: one that claims more personal importance than is warranted
2
: a start-up enterprise
Examples of upstart in a Sentence
Noun
a young upstart from Harvard who thinks he knows more than the boss
having made their money in oil decades ago, they consider these billionaire dot-commers mere upstarts
Recent Examples on the Web
Brian Steinberg, Variety, 31 Jan. 2025
Chinese artificial intelligence upstart DeepSeek shocked many investors and rattled the U.S. stock market, which has relied on gains from AI for the past two years.
—Hakyung Kim, CNBC, 28 Jan. 2025
But the College Football Playoff — the 12-team tournament that led to the championship game — also included relative upstarts like Boise State, Arizona State and Southern Methodist University.
—New York Times, 19 Jan. 2025
Mega social media platforms usually suffer a long death, shedding relevance and users as they’re slowly usurped by a new innovative generation of upstarts, like Facebook muscling out Myspace.
—Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 19 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for upstart 
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Noun
Hims & Hers, the telehealth upstart, will focus on the problems of obesity in the U.S., using a minute-long spot that features a collage of different images focused on the dangers of being overweight.
—Brian Steinberg, Variety, 31 Jan. 2025
Chinese artificial intelligence upstart DeepSeek shocked many investors and rattled the U.S. stock market, which has relied on gains from AI for the past two years.
—Hakyung Kim, CNBC, 28 Jan. 2025
But the College Football Playoff — the 12-team tournament that led to the championship game — also included relative upstarts like Boise State, Arizona State and Southern Methodist University.
—New York Times, 19 Jan. 2025
Mega social media platforms usually suffer a long death, shedding relevance and users as they’re slowly usurped by a new innovative generation of upstarts, like Facebook muscling out Myspace.
—Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 19 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for upstart
Dictionary Entries Near upstart
Cite this Entry
“Upstart.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/upstart. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
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