ROI

Meanings

1. 1abbreviationcountable or uncountable

   A measure of the profit or benefit gained from an investment relative to its cost, usually shown as a percentage.

   Grammar: Can be used with an or a when countable (an ROI of 15%), or without an article when uncountable (high ROI).

   Patterns

   • ROI on something
   • a high/low ROI
   • calculate/measure ROI
   • an ROI of X percent

   The company calculated the ROI on its new advertising campaign.

   We need to improve the ROI of our marketing budget.

   After two years, the ROI on the solar panels was 12%.

2. 2abbreviationcountable

   The ratio of money gained or lost on an investment compared to the amount invested, often used to compare different investments.

   Grammar: Often used in financial reports; can be modified by adjectives like positive, negative, or expected.

   Patterns

   • a positive/negative ROI
   • the expected ROI
   • ROI of X%

   The ROI of the stock was negative after the market crash.

   Investors are looking for a positive ROI within five years.

   The expected ROI on this project is 20% annually.

Common combinations

high ROI

The new software has a high ROI because it saves so much time.

low ROI

They abandoned the project due to its low ROI.

calculate ROI

We need to calculate the ROI before we decide.

ROI on investment

What is the ROI on investment in renewable energy?

improve ROI

The manager suggested ways to improve ROI.

Synonyms and how they differ

return

Return is the profit itself, while ROI is the ratio of profit to cost; return is more general, ROI is a specific measure.

yield

Yield often refers to income from an investment, like interest or dividends, while ROI includes all benefits and costs.

Word family

return on investment phrase

The full form of ROI; used in formal writing.

Commonly confused: ROI or ROE?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “ROI”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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