English

Adverb

on the one hand ‎(not comparable)

1. (sequence, idiomatic) From one point of view.

   On the one hand, it was quite a good bargain, but, on the other hand, do we really need one?

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times:

     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.

Coordinate terms

• on the other hand
• on the gripping hand (fanspeak slang)

Translations