evenhanded
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of evenhanded
Explanation
Evenhanded means fair to all sides. If your essay is evenhanded, it should look at both sides of an argument, without showing preference for one side or the other. When you talk about two opposing ideas, you often invoke the idea of hands. “On the one hand,” you begin, discussing the first idea, and then move on to discuss its opposite, starting in with, “On the other hand.” Evenhanded means treating both “hands” evenly. Of course, you're not really talking about hands — you're talking about sides of an arguments, or siblings splitting a cookie.
Vocabulary lists containing evenhanded
Nothing But the Truth
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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2014 Vocabulary Video Contest (A-L)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He has, in his first year at HHS, “significantly thinned out the sprawling $1.7 trillion department,” as an evenhanded report from the Associated Press put it.
From Slate • Jan. 20, 2026
What “The Wolf War” also does—and a lot of nonfiction TV doesn’t—is approach its subject in an honestly evenhanded, objective manner.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 16, 2025
“Merciless,” like its predecessors, is full of sound and fury, signifying much that Ice finds wrong with the world, his evenhanded, intelligent opinions writ loudly, if graphically.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 22, 2024
“I can’t imagine that helps the defense … to have somebody treat the authority figure, who’s been pretty evenhanded, that way. I don’t think that’ll play well.”
From Salon • May 21, 2024
I'd go doubtin' the evenhanded jestice of Cherokee's faro game quicker than distrustin' you.'
From Wolfville Nights by Lewis, Alfred Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
