🗓️ Idiom: The Bottom Line
💬 Meaning
- The most important or essential point, often referring to financial profit or loss.
- In business, “the bottom line” typically means the net income after all expenses.
🧠 Example Sentences
- We need to cut costs—our bottom line is suffering.
- The bottom line is that we can’t afford another delay.
- If it doesn’t improve the bottom line, it’s not worth the investment.
🏛️ Origin
The term originates from accounting, where the final line on a financial statement shows the net profit or loss, literally the bottom line of the document. Over time, it has also come to mean the most crucial point in any situation.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
The marketing team’s efforts improved the company’s __________.
Answer
bottom line
2. Choose the correct meaning of “the bottom line”:
A) The last page of a report
B) The key point or financial result
C) A section of a contract
Answer
B) The key point or financial result
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“We need to watch our expenses. They are affecting our profits.” → Change the sentence using: the bottom line
Answer
We need to watch our expenses. They are affecting our bottom line.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
👉 Finance and Accounting Idioms
👉 Business English Idioms List
👉 Student Space
👉 Tutor Toolkit