TINSTAAFL

T1I1N1S1T1A1A1F4L1

A form of there's no such thing as a free lunch — Nothing is free; even things that appear free often have to be paid for in the end.

Scrabble 12
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Meanings

phrase
  1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of there's no such thing as a free lunch, an alternative to TANSTAAFL.

    1952, Ethics magazine, cited in 2006, Ralph Keyes, The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When, Macmillan, page 70, Professor Alvin Hansen's famous TINSTAAFL formula--"There is no such thing as a free lunch" [Keyes adds, "This acronym had already appeared in a 1949 newspaper column."]

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
there's no such thing as a free lunch

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

falstatin
Cite this entry
APA

TINSTAAFL. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/TINSTAAFL

MLA

“TINSTAAFL.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/TINSTAAFL. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “TINSTAAFL,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/TINSTAAFL.

Source: TINSTAAFL on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.