opportunity cost
noun
: the added cost of using resources (as for production or speculative investment) that is the difference between the actual value resulting from such use and that of an alternative (such as another use of the same resources or an investment of equal risk but greater return)
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The Brookings Institution’s calculation that the cost of raising a child through high school is now more than $300,000 for a middle-income family is a poor estimate of the true opportunity cost of childbearing. 
WSJ, 30 Aug. 2022 For a consumer or even a coach or an athlete, there’s an opportunity cost whenever the conference expands. Scott Nover, Quartz, 20 July 2022 Moreover, technical difficulties can take time to resolve, which is already an opportunity cost for the business. Yec, Forbes, 9 Aug. 2022 From the perspective of the early days of hard benchmarks, the opportunity cost of ten million dollars spent on a long-shot primary was about twenty-five hundred lives. Gideon Lewis-kraus, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022 There's no greater tug on a team's energy (an opportunity cost measured in time) than employees who need a significant amount of cajoling, hand-holding and/or active management to execute and unblock themselves. Expert Panel, Forbes, 5 July 2022 Continuing increases in interest rates will both raise the opportunity cost of investing money in equities and squeeze profit margins. David Meyer, Fortune, 6 July 2022 There is always an opportunity cost to everything and there truly is always another opportunity perhaps just in a different form around the corner. Sarah Boyd, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2022 In which case an investor would have lost the opportunity cost relative to inflation. Vineer Bhansali, Forbes, 2 July 2022 See More
WSJ, 30 Aug. 2022 For a consumer or even a coach or an athlete, there’s an opportunity cost whenever the conference expands. Scott Nover, Quartz, 20 July 2022 Moreover, technical difficulties can take time to resolve, which is already an opportunity cost for the business. Yec, Forbes, 9 Aug. 2022 From the perspective of the early days of hard benchmarks, the opportunity cost of ten million dollars spent on a long-shot primary was about twenty-five hundred lives. Gideon Lewis-kraus, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022 There's no greater tug on a team's energy (an opportunity cost measured in time) than employees who need a significant amount of cajoling, hand-holding and/or active management to execute and unblock themselves. Expert Panel, Forbes, 5 July 2022 Continuing increases in interest rates will both raise the opportunity cost of investing money in equities and squeeze profit margins. David Meyer, Fortune, 6 July 2022 There is always an opportunity cost to everything and there truly is always another opportunity perhaps just in a different form around the corner. Sarah Boyd, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2022 In which case an investor would have lost the opportunity cost relative to inflation. Vineer Bhansali, Forbes, 2 July 2022 See More Word History
First Known Use
1894, in the meaning defined above
Legal Definition
opportunity cost
noun
op·por·tu·ni·ty cost
: the cost of making an investment that is the difference between the return on one investment and the return on an alternative