English

Alternative forms

• OTOH

Adverb

on the other hand ‎(not comparable)

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

   Well yes, it was quite a good bargain; on the other hand, do we really need one?

   • 1873, James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism:

     Its external relations, on the one hand to dynamics, and on the other to heat, light, chemical action, and the constitution of bodies, seem to indicate the special importance of electrical science as an aid to the interpretation of nature.

   • 1921, H. L. Mencken, The American Language:

     Thus the study of the language he is supposed to use, to the average American, takes on a sort of bilingual character. On the one hand, he is grounded abominably in a grammar and syntax that have always been largely artificial, even in the country where they are supposed to prevail, and on the other hand he has to pick up the essentials of his actual speech as best he may.

Synonyms

• but, however, still, then again, yet, conversely, vice versa.

Coordinate terms

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

Translations