loss-making

USAGE SUMMARY

"loss-making" is correct and usable in written English. You can use it to describe a business or venture that is operating at a loss. Example: The company reported a loss-making quarter due to decreased sales. Alternative expressions include "unprofitable" and "money-losing."

✓ Grammatically correct

News & Media

Formal & Business

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

59 human-written examples

A loss-making company in 2001 now makes profits of £600m.

The Guardian - Business

The firm also makes occasional one-off pieces, although these are invariably loss-making.

The Economist

In recent years loss-making quarters have become the norm for HTC, which posted its first ever loss making quarter in Q3 2013.

TechCrunch

But it does make commercial sense for savings to be made at two loss-making papers.

The Guardian

In recent years loss-making quarters have become the norm for the Taiwanese company, which posted its first ever loss making quarter in Q3 2013.

TechCrunch

Loss-making firms will be sold.

The Economist

Loss-making radio outlets were rationalised.

The Guardian

Ignore the first year of loss-making.

The Guardian - Opinion

"A loss-making bank cannot win anyone's trust".

The New York Times

Royal Mail was loss-making when Greene took over.

The Guardian

"Strikes … can only aggravate the airline's loss-making situation".

The Guardian - Business

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

Always use a hyphen when "loss-making" acts as an adjective modifying a following noun, such as a "loss-making division" or "loss-making company".

Common error

Avoid using "loss-making" to describe a specific marketing tactic where a product is priced low to stimulate other sales; the correct term for that strategy is a "loss leader".

Linguistic Context

The term "loss-making" serves as a compound adjective used to qualify nouns, particularly in the fields of commerce and economics. According to Ludwig AI, it is most frequently used to modify nouns like "company", "quarter", "airline" and "business". It effectively synthesizes a complex financial state into a single descriptive unit.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

News & Media

65%

Formal & Business

25%

Science

5%

Less common in

Social Media

3%

Wiki

1%

Reference

1%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In conclusion, "loss-making" is a highly efficient and standard compound adjective used to describe financial deficits. Data from Ludwig confirms its widespread acceptance in elite news publications such as The Economist and The Guardian. It is almost always hyphenated and serves as a professional synonym for "<a href="/s/unprofitable" target="_blank" rel="alternative">unprofitable". Writers should use it when they want to convey financial loss in a direct, objective and business-oriented manner, ensuring the hyphen is maintained when modifying a noun.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

unprofitable

More general term for failing to yield profit

money-losing

Slightly more informal and direct alternative

non-profitable

Technically accurate but less common in business journalism

in the red

Idiomatic expression referring to negative balances in accounting

deficit-running

Often used for organizations or government entities

loss-generating

Focuses on the production of losses rather than just the state of losing

commercially unviable

Implies that the project cannot survive in a market setting

loss-bearing

Focuses on the entity that must endure or carry the losses

failing

Stronger term implying potential total collapse

bleeding money

Highly informal and metaphorical for rapid financial loss

FAQs

How to use "loss-making" in a sentence?

You can use "loss-making" to describe an entity that is not profitable, for example: "The tech giant decided to sell off its <a href="/s/loss-making+subsidiary" target="_blank" rel="alternative">loss-making subsidiary after three years of deficits."

What can I say instead of "loss-making"?

You can use alternatives like "<a href="/s/unprofitable" target="_blank" rel="alternative">unprofitable", "<a href="/s/money-losing" target="_blank" rel="alternative">money-losing" or "<a href="/s/in+the+red" target="_blank" rel="alternative">in the red" depending on the context.

Is "loss-making" always hyphenated?

In British English, it is standard to hyphenate it both before a noun and after a verb. In American English, it is strictly hyphenated when it precedes a noun (e.g., a "loss-making venture").

What is the difference between "loss-making" and "unprofitable"?

While often interchangeable, "loss-making" specifically highlights the active incurrence of losses, whereas "<a href="/s/unprofitable" target="_blank" rel="alternative">unprofitable" can also describe something that simply breaks even or fails to provide a sufficient return on investment.