Meanings
- often literalaccountingThe total ordinary expenses, such as materials, labor, and taxes, necessarily incurred in operating a commercial enterprise.
Once you factor in rent, staff, and inventory, the cost of doing business around here eats up nearly half of gross revenue.
Synonyms: price of doing business, comes with the territory, part of the package, the price you pay, occupational hazard
- idiomaticAn unwelcome or regrettable but predictable and unavoidable risk, loss, or inconvenience accepted as an inherent part of pursuing a particular goal or aim, especially when the risk may be impractical or counterproductive to try to reduce or eliminate.
Civilian casualties are just the cost of doing business when conducting a military operation in a dense urban enviroment.
1 more example
Sexual harassment settlements: ‘cost of doing business’
2011, CNN, Sexual harassment settlements: ‘cost of doing business’ (article title)Synonyms: part of the deal
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe total ordinary expenses, such as materials, labor, and taxes, necessarily incurred in operating a commercial enterprise.
nounAn unwelcome or regrettable but predictable and unavoidable risk, loss, or inconvenience accepted as an inherent part of pursuing a particular goal or aim, especially when the risk may be impractical or counterproductive to try to reduce or eliminate.
Origin
Originally a literal phrase, the cost of doing business, i.e. the ordinary expenses of running a commercial enterprise. The figurative sense, with the expanded meaning of any accepted negative consequence involved in pursuing a goal, became established in American English by the mid-to-late 20th century.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French frais du métier
- frais du métierunavoidable expense or risk accepted as routine
German die Kosten des Geschäfts
- die Kosten des Geschäftsunavoidable expense or risk accepted as routine
Japanese 商売の代償
- 商売の代償 (shōbai no daishō)unavoidable expense or risk accepted as routine
Spanish el costo de hacer negocios
- el costo de hacer negociosunavoidable expense or risk accepted as routine
Cite this entry
cost of doing business. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cost%20of%20doing%20business
“cost of doing business.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cost%20of%20doing%20business. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cost of doing business,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cost%20of%20doing%20business.
Source: cost of doing business on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.