cost center

American  

noun

1. any unit of activity, group of employees or machines, line of products, etc., isolated or arranged in order to allocate and assign costs more easily.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cost center

It is now something closer to a fiscal cost center.

From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026

Each trailer uses about 4,500 pounds of the lightweight metal, which is also its biggest cost center.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026

AI ethics is “seen as a cost center, not a revenue center,” Chowdhury said.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2023

At another meeting a commissioner said it would be "cool" if, instead of being a cost center, the jail could be a "profit center."

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2021

I think the executives at those companies have come to view labor as purely a cost center.

From The Verge ● Mar. 23, 2021