Definition of trade-off
1
: a balancing of factors all of which are not attainable at the same time
the education versus experience trade-off which governs personnel practices— H. S. White
2
: a giving up of one thing in return for another : exchange
Test Your Vocabulary
Which Word Does Not Belong?
-
- Which of these words does not mean "nonsense"?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
TAKE THE QUIZ
A daily challenge for crossword fanatics.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share trade-off
Time Traveler for trade-off
The first known use of trade-off was in 1909
See more words from the same year