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six of one, half a dozen of the other

  1. The alternatives are the same: “I can take the bus or the subway to get home; during rush hour, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.” The phrase , which is sometimes inverted as “half a dozen of one, six of the other,” is merely two ways of expressing the number six.


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Idioms and Phrases

The two alternatives are the same, as in Either Route 2 or Long Avenue will get you there—it's six of one, half a dozen of the other . This term simply equates two different ways of saying “six.” [First half of 1800s]

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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.

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