sunk costs fallacy in English

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{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sunk costs fallacies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "sunk costs fallacy"
      },
      "expansion": "sunk costs fallacy (plural sunk costs fallacies)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "source": "w"
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The phenomenon where somebody justifies an increased investment of money or other resources based on the cumulative prior investment (the sunk costs), despite new evidence suggesting that the cost of continuing now outweighs the expected benefit."
      ],
      "id": "en-sunk_costs_fallacy-en-noun-adi6RhB6",
      "links": [
        [
          "phenomenon",
          "phenomenon"
        ],
        [
          "justifies",
          "justify"
        ],
        [
          "investment",
          "investment"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "cumulative",
          "cumulative"
        ],
        [
          "prior",
          "prior"
        ],
        [
          "evidence",
          "evidence"
        ],
        [
          "cost",
          "cost"
        ],
        [
          "outweigh",
          "outweigh"
        ],
        [
          "benefit",
          "benefit"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "throw good money after bad"
        },
        {
          "word": "double down"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "phenomenon",
          "word": "uponneiden kustannusten harha"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "sunk costs fallacy"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sunk costs fallacies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "sunk costs fallacy"
      },
      "expansion": "sunk costs fallacy (plural sunk costs fallacies)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "throw good money after bad"
    },
    {
      "word": "double down"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
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        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        "English nouns",
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        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The phenomenon where somebody justifies an increased investment of money or other resources based on the cumulative prior investment (the sunk costs), despite new evidence suggesting that the cost of continuing now outweighs the expected benefit."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "phenomenon",
          "phenomenon"
        ],
        [
          "justifies",
          "justify"
        ],
        [
          "investment",
          "investment"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "cumulative",
          "cumulative"
        ],
        [
          "prior",
          "prior"
        ],
        [
          "evidence",
          "evidence"
        ],
        [
          "cost",
          "cost"
        ],
        [
          "outweigh",
          "outweigh"
        ],
        [
          "benefit",
          "benefit"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "phenomenon",
      "word": "uponneiden kustannusten harha"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sunk costs fallacy"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (d146717 and 59dc20b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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"sunk costs fallacy" meaning in English

Noun

Inflected forms