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

Example Sentences

They also used the shortest path in a non-Riemannian space to account for diminishing returns in color perception, another effect that had not been fully captured by the older approach.

From Science Daily • Jun. 7, 2026

Firstly, diminishing returns have kicked in - how much more capacity among the public is there really for jaw dropping revelation about the Lord Mandelson soap opera?

From BBC • Jun. 1, 2026

But keep in mind that there does come a point of diminishing returns.

From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026

The studios over the decades tried to as well, albeit often with increasingly diminishing returns.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

He also accepts the wages-fund theory, rejects the law of Malthus, and, although believing in the law of diminishing returns from land, regards rent as the reward for a service rendered.

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