English · Idiom Candidate

split the difference

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To compromise by accepting a middle value or position

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

thỏa hiệp ở vị trí trung gian

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: divide the difference

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

We decided that I would live and split the difference between then and a projected now.

Split the difference on a cuppa, shall we?

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “split the difference” mean?

To compromise by accepting a middle value or position Literally: divide the difference

Is “split the difference” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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