six of one, half a dozen of the other

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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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

On the eve of the Oprah interview with the couple, which aired on CBS on Monday at 1am GMT, it was indeed fair to expect that the impartial viewer would come away thinking: “Six of one, half a dozen of the other.”

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We understand each other fine: what I do not understand is why we all have to be dragged to participate in a polarisation that we do not share; that is not a sign of the times; that is not a divided nation, six of one, half a dozen of the other; that is, plainly, asymmetric.

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Among his possible reactions, she wrote, were “six of one, half a dozen of the other,” “depends if I’m feeling lucky that day” and “the higher the stakes, the greater the rush.”

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Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

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Indeed, the split in America is not necessarily six of one, half a dozen of the other.

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six o'clock swill six-pack

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