What does breakeven mean?
Breakeven refers to the critical point at which a business's total income exactly matches its total expenditure, leaving no profit and no loss. In accounting and management, it is often expressed as a specific figure — the number of units that must be sold, or the revenue required, to cover all fixed and variable costs. The word also works adjectivally, as in "a breakeven operation" or "breakeven analysis", describing ventures designed or expected merely to cover their own costs. Though rooted in formal economics, the term has spread into everyday speech: freelancers speak of hitting breakeven on a project, and event organizers may aim for a breakeven ticket price. Its connotations are neutral to cautiously positive — reaching breakeven signals survival rather than success, a milestone on the road from losses toward profitability. The single-word spelling is now standard in American usage, while "break-even" persists in British English.
The point at which total revenue equals total cost, resulting in neither profit nor loss.
"Higher volumes pushed the division to breakeven by the third quarter."
Often used in the phrases "breakeven point" and "reaching/hitting breakeven".
(Attributive) Neither making a profit nor a loss; just covering costs.
"The café traded at a breakeven level during its first year."
Almost always appears directly before the noun it modifies.
Every business on earth chases the same invisible line: breakeven — where you stop losing money but haven't yet made a penny.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of breakeven
The word is a transparent compound of the verb "break" and the adjective "even", literally meaning to "come out even" — that is, for gains and losses to balance. It arose in English commercial vocabulary in the early twentieth century, alongside the rise of modern cost-accounting practices, originally as the phrase "break even" before settling into noun and attributive use. Because both elements are native Germanic words, it has no foreign cognates beyond the ordinary relatives of "break" and "even" themselves.
How breakeven is actually used
Predominantly a business and finance term, used in both formal reports and everyday commercial speech. The solid form "breakeven" is standard in American business writing, while "break-even" remains frequent in British English. It functions chiefly as a noun but commonly appears attributively before nouns (e.g., "breakeven analysis").
Easily confused with breakeven
"Break-even" (often hyphenated, especially in British English) is simply the more traditional spelling of the same word; "breakeven" as one word is the common modern business spelling, so the difference is orthographic rather than semantic.