as in exchanges
a giving or taking of one thing of value in return for another
a trade-off in which a company got a celebrity spokesperson and a fading star got some much-needed cash
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Recent Examples of trade-offs
Anyone who prefers unfiltered photos, transparent trade-offs, and surgeon involvement over highlight reels.
—
Wyles Daniel, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025
But there are trade-offs here, too.
—Nikita Ostrovsky, Time, 20 Oct. 2025
There are definitely trade-offs for doing so, including seeing costs rise as Bartesian grows and health care prices surge.
—Maria Aspan, NPR, 16 Oct. 2025
Understanding the real trade-offs.
—FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2025
The trade-offs will be on a different scale.
—Jonny Thomson, Big Think, 8 Oct. 2025
But all technologies make trade-offs, sacrificing coherence, controllability or scalability to improve something else.
—Eli Levenson-Falk, The Conversation, 8 Oct. 2025
On the broader question of how model makers should approach deployment, Kass argued that the trade-offs of releasing powerful technology early are worth it.
—Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 3 Oct. 2025
The design carries trade-offs that matter for mass production.
—Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 25 Sep. 2025
Wyles Daniel, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025
But there are trade-offs here, too.
—Nikita Ostrovsky, Time, 20 Oct. 2025
There are definitely trade-offs for doing so, including seeing costs rise as Bartesian grows and health care prices surge.
—Maria Aspan, NPR, 16 Oct. 2025
Understanding the real trade-offs.
—FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2025
The trade-offs will be on a different scale.
—Jonny Thomson, Big Think, 8 Oct. 2025
But all technologies make trade-offs, sacrificing coherence, controllability or scalability to improve something else.
—Eli Levenson-Falk, The Conversation, 8 Oct. 2025
On the broader question of how model makers should approach deployment, Kass argued that the trade-offs of releasing powerful technology early are worth it.
—Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 3 Oct. 2025
The design carries trade-offs that matter for mass production.
—Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 25 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for trade-offs
exchanges
Noun
-
Saturday also marks the start of enrollment on federal insurance exchanges, and premiums are expected to more than double on average.—
NPR,
NPR,
31 Oct. 2025
-
Unsurprisingly, loneliness dropped during positive interactions with friends, but negative ones didn’t have much effect – perhaps because negative exchanges were rare, accounting for only 2% of reports.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
30 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Trade-offs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trade-offs. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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