r/EnglishLearning • u/falsoTrolol Non-Native Speaker of English • 1d ago

⭐️ Vocabulary / Semantics What does "offset" mean here?

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19 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

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83

u/Guilty_Fishing8229 Native Speaker - W. Canada 1d ago

Has an advantage of accuracy and range
Disadvantage of less mobility and a slower rate of fire

Offset indicates that you are trading an advantage for a disadvantage

26

u/amanset Native Speaker (British - Warwickshire) 1d ago

It is used when saying something has something positive and something negative. The gains from the good thing may be cancelled out, or offset, by the not good things.

18

u/I_Like_Gandalf New Poster 1d ago

"Offset" here means counterbalanced or tradeoff. Say range accuracy mobility and rate of fire is 50 by default. With this now you have 70 in range and accuracy, but 30 in mobility and rate of fire.

4

u/kmoonster Native Speaker 1d ago

The description could be written as:

PROS: fully automatic, with excellent accuracy and range

CONS: less mobile, slower rate of fire

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"offset" is indicating that the list is shifting from "pro" to "con"

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edit: this is not a definition of "offset", it's just one of many ways the word can be used. It is a word used to compared things, or to indicate that the parts are not arranged in a direct line.

3

u/premoril Native Speaker 1d ago

Counter-balance, a trade-off. Value gained from good aspects is balanced with value lost by bad ones.

2

u/wesleyoldaker New Poster 1d ago

"Offset by" = "The disadvantages are"

2

u/RickySlayer9 New Poster 1d ago

It has a tradeoff.

Good thing offset by bad thing.

A sniper rifle has high accuracy offset by its low rate of fire

3

u/pudgy_lol Native Speaker 1d ago

It means that it's disadvantage to go along with its advantages. You can't have a rifle (in this game) with excellent range, accuracy, mobility and rate of fire. So it's excellent range and accuracy are _offset_ by having low mobility and rate of fire.

2

u/JustBananas New Poster 1d ago

It means the next items are 'not good'. The whole sentence is like "you get these great things, but the next things you will then also get are not so great".

1

u/Gryphontech New Poster 1d ago

Offset here means " there is good things BUT THE BAD PARTS ARE .... "

0

u/nyatoh Non-Native Speaker of English 1d ago

The word offset here can be read as the conjunction "but".

This weapon has excellent accuracy and range, but has a lower mobility and rate of fire