diminishing returns

[ dih-min-ish-ing ri-turnz ]

noun

1. any rate of profit, production, benefits, etc., that beyond a certain point fails to increase proportionately with added investment, effort, or skill.
2. Also called law of diminishing returns. Economics. the fact, often stated as a law or principle, that when any factor of production, as labor, is increased while other factors, as capital and land, are held constant in amount, the output per unit of the variable factor will eventually diminish.

diminishing returns

plural noun

1. progressively smaller rises in output resulting from the increased application of a variable input, such as labour, to a fixed quantity, as of capital or land
2. the increase in the average cost of production that may arise beyond a certain point as a result of increasing the overall scale of production

Word History and Origins

Origin of diminishing returns¹

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

I think if you keep trying to do things the same way it becomes diminishing returns.

From The Daily Beast

As with any exercise, it can be overdone to the point of diminishing returns and negative health consequences.

From The Daily Beast

The Federal Reserve has continued to support the economy with unprecedented levels of bond-buying but with diminishing returns.

From The Daily Beast

The juggernaut franchise that has made obscene amounts of money may have finally reached the point of diminishing returns.

From The Daily Beast

The duo has replicated this formula with diminishing returns—the last one, Humans After All, being the dud.

From The Daily Beast

In agriculture the law is the opposite one of diminishing returns.

From Project Gutenberg

He denied the universal truth, for all stages of cultivation, of the law of diminishing returns from land.

From Project Gutenberg

The law of diminishing returns applies to mining as well as to agriculture.

From Project Gutenberg

Always the worst time of day, the old man pondered, a process of diminishing returns.

From Project Gutenberg

How far the operation of the law of diminishing returns will allow this tendency to proceed we cannot here discuss.

From Project Gutenberg