The Bottom Line

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🗓️ Idiom: The Bottom Line

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💬 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.

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ℹ️ Other Useful Pages

👉 Finance and Accounting Idioms
👉 Business English Idioms List
👉 Student Space
👉 Tutor Toolkit

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