trade off

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to exchange one desirable thing for another, accepting a loss in one dimension in order to gain in another, on the understanding that having both simultaneously is impossible or prohibitively costly; trade-offs are fundamental to economics, engineering, design, and everyday decision-making, reflecting the reality of scarcity and the necessity of choice; the concept is central to welfare economics, where social decisions involve comparing trade-offs between competing values such as efficiency and equity, liberty and security, or economic growth and environmental protection; acknowledging trade-offs honestly is regarded as a hallmark of rigorous thinking, in contrast to the political tendency to promise benefits without naming the corresponding costs