balancing act

noun

plural balancing acts

: an attempt to handle or deal with two or more things (such as obligations) at one time so as to satisfy often competing requirements

"It's a difficult balancing act between celebrating the past and making room for the future."

—Jeffrey Brown

Vegas might be the starkest example of what the hospitality industry faces across the country: a delicate balancing act between bringing back jobs and revenue and keeping workers and customers safe from a virus that's killed more than 100,000 Americans.

—Dave Jamieson

It's a balancing act between appreciation, education and safety. Earlier this year, London city council voted to tighten up a parks bylaw that restricts the amount of food residents can feed to wild animals.

—Megan Stacey

Examples of balancing act in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As book prices climb, the industry faces a balancing act between accessibility, profitability and discovery. —Josh Rivera, USA Today, 14 June 2026

Every ensamble is a balancing act, demanding an understanding of how individual agaves interact through fermentation and distillation. —Hudson Lindenberger, Forbes.com, 12 June 2026

The visit illustrates his balancing act of upholding centuries-old religious traditions in a country where faith is waning while reaching a global audience from a basilica that is more a magnet for tourists than believers. —ABC News, 9 June 2026

But Pashinyan has also sought to keep up a balancing act with Russia. —Nathan Hodge, CNN Money, 8 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1907, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for balancing act

• overreact
• abstract
• attacked
• attract
• contact
• contract
• detract
• distract
• enact
• exact
• extract
• hijacked