fifty-fifty

or 50-50

[ fif-tee-fif-tee ]

adjective

1. equally good and bad, likely and unlikely, favorable and unfavorable, etc.:

   a fifty-fifty chance of winning.

adverb

1. in an evenly or equally divided way:

   The board voted fifty-fifty on the merger.

fifty-fifty

adjective

1. informal.
   shared or sharing equally; in equal parts

Word History and Origins

Origin of fifty-fifty¹

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. go fifty-fifty (on), to share equally in the cost, responsibility, or profits (of ):

   We went fifty-fifty on the dinner check.

More idioms and phrases containing fifty-fifty

see under under go halves .

Example Sentences

Squid born in early July had a fifty-fifty chance of using either tactic.

From Science Daily

He said there is “a fifty-fifty chance for missionary Baek’s release as Russia won’t give up relations with South Korea completely.”

From Seattle Times

There's a fifty-fifty chance over the next five years that we'll go over this important marker of temperature increases, compared to pre-industrial times.

From BBC

Farmer sympathized with the needs of the Ministry of Health, but he still hoped that the loan could be divided fifty-fifty.

From Literature

The secretary general, he said, had improved the gender balance in leadership roles: "We now have basically fifty-fifty parity of male and females at senior levels and of the secretary general's representatives in the field."

From BBC

Related Words

• balanced
• commensurate
• comparable
• corresponding
• equivalent
• identical
• proportionate