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
Ricardo Perez-Truglia and Ugo Troiano2
: a giving up of one thing in return for another : exchange
trade off
transitive verb
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
The trade-off is dependency on AI decision making.
—Sahar Hashmi, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
Previous tools generally required a trade-off between the length of a DNA sequence that could be used as input and accuracy.
—Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 28 Jan. 2026
Sprout’s hardware reflects deliberate trade-offs prioritizing safety and robustness.
—Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 28 Jan. 2026
The versatility does come with some slight trade-offs, though.
—New Atlas, 24 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for trade-off
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Sahar Hashmi, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
Previous tools generally required a trade-off between the length of a DNA sequence that could be used as input and accuracy.
—Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 28 Jan. 2026
Sprout’s hardware reflects deliberate trade-offs prioritizing safety and robustness.
—Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 28 Jan. 2026
The versatility does come with some slight trade-offs, though.
—New Atlas, 24 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for trade-off
Cite this Entry
“Trade-off.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trade-off. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.
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