diminishing returns

American  

[dih-min-ish-ing ri-turnz] / dɪˈmɪn ɪʃ ɪŋ rɪˈtɜrnz /

noun

1. any rate of profit, production, benefits, etc., that beyond a certain point fails to increase proportionately with added investment, effort, or skill.

2. Also called law of diminishing returns. Economics. the fact, often stated as a law or principle, that when any factor of production, as labor, is increased while other factors, as capital and land, are held constant in amount, the output per unit of the variable factor will eventually diminish.

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diminishing returns British  

plural noun

1. progressively smaller rises in output resulting from the increased application of a variable input, such as labour, to a fixed quantity, as of capital or land

2. the increase in the average cost of production that may arise beyond a certain point as a result of increasing the overall scale of production

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Etymology

Origin of diminishing returns

First recorded in 1805–15

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

diminishing returns

Some of the ways that Tresnjak ups the ante on that daring have diminishing returns.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

On top of that, Kedrosky is alarmed, he said, at the model convergence and diminishing returns of large language models’ performance.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

The diminishing returns of instant gratification might explain why catalogs are nearly always, according to trade publications and business journals, on the verge of a renaissance.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026

"There's the law of diminishing returns," Shea said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026

Those whose supply is gained at a gradually increasing cost, under the law of diminishing returns.

From Principles Of Political Economy Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill

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