on the one hand

Definitions

From one point of view.

idiomatic, sequence

Equivalents

Examples

“On the one hand, it was quite a good bargain, but on the other hand, do we really need⟳ a second car?”

“1950, Bertrand Russell, acceptance speech for Nobel Prize in Literature I maintain⟳, however, on the one hand, that there are few occasions upon which large bodies of men, such as politics is concerned with, can rise⟳ above selfishness, while, on the other hand, there are a very great many circumstances in which populations will fall⟳ below selfishness, if selfishness is interpreted as enlightened self-interest.”

“The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach⟳ adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like⟳ a digital-age leader who could at last⟳ dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.”

CEFR level