offset

offset — verb

1. to use one thing — usually a gain, saving, or positive effect — so that it cance

1.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to use one thing — usually a gain, saving, or positive effect — so that it cancels out a loss, cost, or negative effect from somewhere else, leaving the overall result roughly even.

Example

Higher fuel prices were offset by cheaper food and clothing this month.

passive: be offset by + noun

Maya offset her long flight with a donation to plant fifty trees in Kenya.

offset + noun + with + noun

Common collocations
  • partly offset
  • largely offset
  • fully offset
  • offset losses
  • offset costs
  • offset the rise
Synonyms
  • counterbalance

    more formal; emphasises equal force on both sides

  • compensate for

    wider use; can apply to feelings or fairness, not just numbers

  • cancel out

    informal; suggests the two amounts fully erase each other

Antonyms
  • compound

    to make a loss or problem worse instead of balancing it

Grammar Patterns

offset + noun (cost / loss / effect) + by/with + noun

Usage Note

Subject is usually money, savings, gains, or positive effects; object is usually a cost, loss, or harm. Frequently used in the passive: be offset by something.

Common Mistakes

I want to offset that I spent too much yesterday.
I want to offset yesterday's overspending by eating at home this week.
offset takes a concrete noun (cost, loss, effect), not a that-clause.

2. to make up for the carbon dioxide that your activity puts into the air, by payin

2.verbtransitiveC2
Definition

to make up for the carbon dioxide that your activity puts into the air, by paying for projects such as planting trees or building clean-energy plants that take the same amount of carbon back out.

Example

The airline lets passengers offset their flight emissions for a small fee at checkout.

offset + emissions / footprint

Lina offset her family's holiday flights by funding a solar project in rural India.

Common collocations
  • offset emissions
  • offset your carbon footprint
  • offset flights
  • carbon-offset scheme
Synonyms
  • neutralize

    as in 'carbon-neutralize'; emphasises bringing the net effect to zero

  • compensate for

    broader; can be used outside the climate context

Grammar Patterns

offset + noun (emissions / carbon / footprint)

Usage Note

Object is almost always a carbon-related noun: emissions, footprint, flights, carbon. Distinguish from sense 1: this is specifically about climate damage, paid for through environmental projects, not general money balancing.

Common Mistakes

We offset our trash by recycling.
We offset our flight emissions by donating to a tree-planting charity.
this sense is about carbon dioxide, not waste in general.

offset — noun

Word family

  • offsetting
    nounC2
  • offsetting
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

These four verbs all describe one thing reducing the impact of another, but they differ in scope and register. 'Offset' is the standard choice in finance, accounting, and climate talk: it focuses on numbers and measurable amounts (costs, losses, emissions). 'Counterbalance' is more formal and slightly more physical — it suggests two forces of equal weight, and works for ideas, arguments, or design as well as money. 'Compensate for' is broader and more human: it can describe making up for a missing skill, a friend's mistake, or unfair treatment, not just numbers. 'Cancel out' is the most informal of the four and implies a fuller, near-total erasure: 'The bonus offset my low salary' (it helped) versus 'The bonus cancelled out my low salary' (the two became equal).

offset ↗counterbalancecompensate forcancel out ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • losses
  • costs
  • emissions
  • carbon footprint
  • tax offset
  • carbon offset

Adverbs

Phrases

  • offset the rise in
  • offset the cost of
  • offset the impact of

Prepositions

  • offset by
  • offset against
  • an offset to
  • an offset against

Etymology

Old English (off + set)Middle EnglishModern English

The noun appears in English from the late 1500s, originally meaning a small shoot growing out from a plant — a side-branch sense still kept by some technical dictionaries. By the 1700s it had stretched to mean any sideways step or ledge, and from there to anything that 'set off' or balanced something else. The financial and accounting sense — one amount cancelling another — became dominant in the 1800s, and the verb followed the same path. The modern climate use ('offset emissions') was coined in the late 20th century by carbon-trading schemes, borrowing the accounting metaphor.