cost-benefit

American  

[kawst-ben-uh-fit, kost-] / ˈkɔstˈbɛn ə fɪt, ˈkɒst- /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or based on a cost-effective analysis.

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cost-benefit British  

adjective

1. denoting or relating to a method of assessing a project that takes into account its costs and its benefits to society as well as the revenue it generates

   a cost-benefit analysis

   the project was assessed on a cost-benefit basis

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Etymology

Origin of cost-benefit

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

"And this type of analysis helps us find pain points where investments in technology can rapidly change the cost-benefit analysis."

From Science Daily • Dec. 11, 2025

The visionaries of the early Space Age didn’t worry much about solar radiation, coronal mass ejections, galactic cosmic rays, psychological stress from isolation, and cost-benefit ratios.

From Slate • Dec. 9, 2025

"So who won? No one," congressional media outlet Punchbowl News said in a cost-benefit analysis of the standoff.

From Barron's • Nov. 13, 2025

Baseball’s analytics revolution has ushered in an age of cost-benefit analyses, sustainability studies and five-year plans, to the point where Dombrowski prioritizing the present over the future feels like a market inefficiency.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 2, 2025

It goes some- how against the grain to learn that cost-benefit analyses can be done neatly on lakes, meadows, nesting gannets, even whole oceans.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas