Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for break-even

break-even

or break·e·ven

[ breyk-ee-vuhn ]

adjective

  1. having income exactly equal to expenditure, thus showing neither profit nor loss.


noun

  1. Energy. the stage at which a fission or fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining.

break even

verb

  1. intr, adverb to attain a level of activity, as in commerce, or a point of operation, as in gambling, at which there is neither profit nor loss
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. accounting
    1. the level of commercial activity at which the total cost and total revenue of a business enterprise are equal
    2. ( as modifier )

      breakeven prices

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of break-even1

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40
Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Neither gain nor lose in some venture, recoup the amount one invested. For example, If the dealer sells five cars a week, he'll break even . This expression probably came from one or another card game (some authorities say it was faro), where it meant to bet that a card would win and lose an equal number of times. It soon was transferred to balancing business gains and losses. Novelist Sinclair Lewis so used it in Our Mr. Wrenn (1914). The usage gave rise to the noun break-even point , for the amount of sales or production needed for a firm to recoup its investment. [Late 1800s]
Discover More

Example Sentences

More funding will be necessary for the athletes just to break even, but at least it initially helped get the trio to the Games.

Then again, I feel The Lone Ranger might break even thanks to DVD sales.

Next, consider that for the next four months, assuming no big shocks or great changes, the government will essentially break even.

Which, probably not coincidentally, is well under the break-even price for shale oil projects.

The red line is the approximate break-even price of the average tar sands producer.

She was too young to know that under the world's judgments clean hearts break even more easily than soiled ones.

The more I think about todays game, fellows, the more certain I am that we were mighty lucky to break even!

What salary you receive over there would just about meet the expenses of the trip, so that you would break even.

The chromite petered out in a month and a half, and he was lucky to break even.

One year out of five will break even, two years will make a little money and the other two years will make big money.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


breaker zonebreakeven chart