bottom line

American  

noun

1. the last line of a financial statement, used for showing net profit or loss.

2. net profit or loss.

3. the deciding or crucial factor.

4. the ultimate result; outcome.

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bottom line British  

noun

1. the last line of a financial statement that shows the net profit or loss of a company or organization

2. the final outcome of a process, discussion, etc

3. the most important or fundamental aspect of a situation

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bottom line Cultural  

1. The last line in an audit, which shows profit or loss.

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bottom line Idioms  

1. The ultimate result, the upshot; also, the main point or crucial factor. For example, The bottom line is that the chairman wants to dictate all of the board's decisions, or Whether or not he obeyed the law is the bottom line. This is an accounting term that refers to the earnings figures that appear on the bottom (last) line of a statement. It began to be transferred to other contexts in the mid-1900s.

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Discover More

“Bottom line” also has a derogatory implication when it refers to those people whose attention to the bottom line prevents them from recognizing the value of anything else.

By extension, “bottom line” refers to the final, determining consideration in a decision.

Other Word Forms

• bottom-line
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of bottom line

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

The bottom line is that companies want to know if shelling out big bucks today for AI tools, from Microsoft or its competitors, is truly worth it.

From Barron's • May 15, 2026

For the bottom line, you usually get a number that is the estimated tax difference between converting and not converting.

From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026

For Heart of Midlothian, the tantalising, scarcely-believable, bottom line is this: after 66 years they may be crowned champions of Scotland on Wednesday.

From BBC • May 13, 2026

The company said its North America beef business recorded record sales in the quarter, though its bottom line came under pressure from an increase in live cattle prices, driven by low cattle availability.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 12, 2026

In evading and warding off wage increases, employers are of course behaving in an economically rational fashion; their business isn’t to make their employees more comfortable and secure but to maximize the bottom line.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

Related Words

• cardinal
• critical
• crucial
• essential
• fundamental
• important
• indispensable