trade-off

noun

ˈtrād-ˌȯf 

1

: a balancing of factors all of which are not attainable at the same time

Governments face a trade-off between privacy and increasing the effectiveness of tax collection.

—Ricardo Perez-Truglia and Ugo Troiano

2

: a giving up of one thing in return for another : exchange

trade off transitive verb

Synonyms of trade-off

• exchange

Examples of trade-off in a Sentence

a trade-off in which a company got a celebrity spokesperson and a fading star got some much-needed cash

Recent Examples on the Web

But the trade-off is the players are usually older, and the open market often leads to contracts with little room for upside — at least on longer-term deals. —Max Bultman, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2026

Modernizing infrastructure requires trade-off judgments; legal processes can’t determine whether, for example, the benefits of a transmission line outweigh the harms of cutting through a pristine forest. —Philip K. Howard, The Atlantic, 10 Jan. 2026

If that’s the trade-off, San Jose will take it every single day of the week and twice on Sundays. —Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 8 Jan. 2026

The trade-off is operating temperature. —Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 6 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1909, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for trade-off

• cerenkov
• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff

Kids Definition

trade-off

noun

ˈtrād-ˌȯf

1

: a balancing of things all of which cannot be had at the same time

2

: a giving up of one thing in return for another