bottom line

American  

noun

• bottom lines
  plural

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.

---

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

---

bottom line Cultural  

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

---

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.

---

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

Derived Forms

• bottom-line
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bottom lines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bottom line

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bottom line

The bottom line: If you were worried about a stock-market crash in the coming weeks, for no other reason than we’re about to enter October, you can relax.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

The bottom line is this: It’s absurd that we are even having this discussion in 2026.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026

But, bottom line, this game proved those critics — and the early-arriving 49ers — right.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

“But if it can be thought of as an accelerator to the human workforce, it means timelines shrink, output increases and thus the bottom line can grow with the current investment of human capital.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

But the bottom line was that we were far from poor and our future was promising, maybe even more promising for the fact that it couldn’t easily be planned.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Related Words

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