Word.ws English Dictionary

be one thing

be one thing verb: to be ordinary or acceptable; often used with "be another thing" to contrast two different ideas, situations, or actions.

Verb

be one thing

  1. To be ordinary or acceptable; often used with "be another thing" to contrast two different ideas, situations, or actions.
    • Talking is one thing; actually taking action is another.
    • It might be one thing if Congress clearly ordained this strange result. But it did not. The relevant statute, the presumption of judicial review, and our precedent all point toward allowing, not forbidding, inventors their day in court.2020, Thryv, Inc., FKA Dex Media, Inc. v. Click-to-Call Technologies, LP, et al. (U.S. Supreme Court No. 18–916), Justice Gorsuch dissenting

Questions about be one thing

What does be one thing mean?
Be one thing means to be ordinary or acceptable; often used with "be another thing" to contrast two different ideas, situations, or actions.
What part of speech is be one thing?
Be one thing is a verb.

Words near be one thing in the dictionary

  1. be on someone's nuts
  2. Be On the Look Out
  3. be on the lookout
  4. be on the lookouts
  5. be on to
  6. be one thing
  7. be one's own man
  8. be one's own worst enemy
  9. be oneself
  10. be onto
  11. be onto nothing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: be one thing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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