at the end of the day

[at thee end uhv thuh dey]

idiom

1. after everything is considered or accounted for; ultimately.

   At the end of the day, we went for simpler printers that just do their job as soon as you click “print” on your device.

   “Yes, cost and convenience matter, but at the end of the day, it’s about the welfare of our children,” she said.

Word History and Origins

Origin of at the end of the day¹

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

“Well, they suck and we’ll win, and God will bless us and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day, and they won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe. And they’re so weak, we’ll fix it.”

Read more on Salon

Maybe at the end of the day, someone comes away from my show and is like, Yeah, I listened to Ross Douthat’s show, and it turns out that conservatives are just as bad as I thought or The far left is just as dangerous as I always suspected that they are or Silicon Valley is in fact going to destroy our humanity.

Read more on Slate

“And the truth is, times are so bleak right now that we really don’t think there’s any hope in sight. But I’m also here to make the people seeing this show laugh, and to reflect it in a more positive way ... because at the end of the day, these women aren’t broken.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

At the end of the day, that’s the ambition that drives artists to make art and fighters to fight.

Read more on Salon

At the end of the day, I have to concentrate on the environment, the training, the way we play, and, as I said last night, I am still very, very strong in my belief that we are not too far away.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• finally 
• in the course of time www.thesaurus.com
• one day www.thesaurus.com
• someday 
• sooner or later 
• ultimately