What is a trade-off? A trade-off is an exchange of one thing for another. A trade-off can be literal, involving physical items, like in a lunch trade-off, where you get your friend’s lunch and they get yours. A trade-off can also be figurative, as when you have to stay home because you’re sick but the trade-off is you get to stay in bed all day. In this sense, a trade-off is a kind of compromise. Example: The big trade-off to running a marathon is getting to eat a lot of pasta!
First recorded in 1960–65; noun use of verb phrase trade off
How does trade-off compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
A trade-off is a kind of compromise that involves giving up something in return for getting something else. When looking you for an after-school job, you might have to make a trade-off: a lower hourly wage for a more convenient location, for example. There are all kinds of trade-offs: one trade-off might be buying a new laptop that's very lightweight and portable but doesn't have as much memory as you wish it had. In economics, a trade-off is defined as an "opportunity cost." For example, you might take a day off work to go to a concert, gaining the opportunity of seeing your favorite band, while losing a day's wages as the cost for that opportunity.
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"I have to allow extra time for my journeys today but that's a reasonable trade-off in my opinion," he said.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026
“This trade-off between fiscal consolidation and maintaining popularity is the biggest conundrum,” Oxford Economics’ Edward Allenby tells Barron’s.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
The unpleasant part of that trade-off is already happening here; most major U.S. airlines moved in April to increase baggage fees as the price of oil was beginning to exert itself on fares.
From Slate • May 12, 2026
Precision–recall analysis examines a similar trade-off, asking how accurate the system’s alerts are relative to the number of incidents it successfully detects.
From Salon • May 12, 2026
He maintained sagely that there is always a trade-off involved in the adoption of any policy, and that if daylight saving time were instituted, curtains and other fabrics would fade more quickly.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
