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average cost

average cost

11 2.7
Total money spent on all units divided by the number of units
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : coste medio
  • According to our calculations, the average cost for a single meal at that restaurant is $25.
  • low average cost
  • weighted average cost
  • total average cost

But you know, you never know these days what is the average cost of a midwife for one family.

Examples

  • Across these two seasons, the average cost per picture jumped from $25,000 to $43,500, or a 75 percent increase.

    Academic text (2017)
  • In-state tuition fees ranged from $773 to $3,936 per year, with an average cost of $1,902.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Well, what is the average cost at that point?

  • What is the average cost per lead on the Facebook?

  • The average cost of a created species is $72 million.

  • The average cost of college is, what, $20,000 a year?

  • In 1997, the average cost of a Regulation A offering was $27,876.

    Academic text (2017)
  • Considering the high average cost of replacing a teacher, high-quality induction programs are a bargain.

    Academic text (2005)
  • In 1991, TT$497.50 or approximately US$117.00 represented the average cost per patient per day.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Some debtors live in cities with above-average costs of living, while other debtors live in rural areas with below-average costs.

    Academic text (2007)

Synonyms

unit cost
vsaverage cost
  • Specialized
2 3.3

The amount of money needed to make, store, and sell one item

is the total cost divided by the number of items

How Expensive

prohibitive
19 7.4
high-priced
31 3.5
average cost
  • Specialized
11 2.7
low-cost
42 2.0

Surface Forms

average cost singular
average costs plural

Morphology

average + cost

The meaning is directly compositional: 'average' (a representative number found by summing and dividing) applied to 'cost' yields the typical per-unit or mean cost, so a learner who knows both words can infer the phrase. This follows a standard noun-modifier pattern and is cross-linguistically transparent, so it should be immediately understandable to B1 learners.

Etymology

Average cost comes from a simple image: imagine you buy several items at different prices, add all the costs together and divide by how many you bought to get the average 'price per item'. So, it means 'the total cost of all units bought or produced divided by the number of units'.