cancel out

phrasal verb

canceled out or cancelled out; canceling out or cancelling out; cancels out

: to reduce the effect of (something) : to be equal to (something) in force or importance but have an opposite effect

The costs cancel out the benefits.

Examples of cancel out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Mission League boys basketball tournament championship game between Sierra Canyon and Notre Dame was canceled out of respect for a Sierra Canyon student who died early Wednesday morning from a car accident. —Tarek Fattal, Daily News, 5 Feb. 2026

And the spin of the lambda is thought to be determined solely by the spin of its strange quark (because the spins of its up and down quarks cancel out). —Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, 4 Feb. 2026

And their most heroic performance came at San Siro against Inter the following month, when Ofri Arad cancelled out Lautaro Martinez’s opener for the 2023 and 2025 finalists. —Will Jeanes, New York Times, 28 Jan. 2026

Moody interiors cancel out the sunny exteriors with a dark, natural color palette softened by plenty of textured rugs and furnishings. —Erika Owen, Architectural Digest, 27 Jan. 2026

Rhymes for cancel out

• roundabout
• runabout
• sauerkraut
• thereabout
• turnabout
• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout