TRADEOFF

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tradeoff mean? 

• TRADEOFF (noun)
  The noun TRADEOFF has 1 sense:

1. an exchange that occurs as a compromise

  Familiarity information: TRADEOFF used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRADEOFF (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An exchange that occurs as a compromise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

trade-off; tradeoff

Context example:

I faced a tradeoff between eating and buying my medicine

Hypernyms ("tradeoff" is a kind of...):

exchange; interchange (the act of changing one thing for another thing)

 Context examples 

There is a cost associated with making these traits, says Poethig, senior author of the report, “but the plant needs them, otherwise it’s a goner. Dan showed: no ants, no plants. The plant is eaten by everything from grasshoppers to mice. So there’s a tradeoff happening. And what we found is that these traits seem to have evolved on the back of a preexisting pathway that governs a developmental transition in plants.###!!!###

(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)