Word.ws English Dictionary

look on the bright side

look on the bright side verb: to examine a situation, usually unfavorable, from a positive perspective; to be cheerful or optimistic.

Verb

look on the bright side (third-person singular simple present looks on the bright side, present participle looking on the bright side, simple past and past participle looked on the bright side)

  1. (idiomatic) To examine a situation, usually unfavorable, from a positive perspective; to be cheerful or optimistic.
    • Look on the bright side. At least having a broken leg means Joyce will have to do the TPS reports until they remember to send your laptop over.
    • Patrick O'Brien: No hard feelings? I've been falsely accused, had the crap kicked out of me, now I have no job.
      Gene Hunt: Look on the bright side. Still got your health. So, you know, every cloud.2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3

Synonyms of look on the bright side

Forms of look on the bright side

third-person singular presentlooks on the bright side
present participlelooking on the bright side
past participlelooked on the bright side
pastlooked on the bright side
alternative formlook on the bright side of it

Questions about look on the bright side

What does look on the bright side mean?
Look on the bright side means to examine a situation, usually unfavorable, from a positive perspective; to be cheerful or optimistic.
What part of speech is look on the bright side?
Look on the bright side is a verb.
What is the past tense of look on the bright side?
The past tense of look on the bright side is looked on the bright side.

Words near look on the bright side in the dictionary

  1. look Ma, no hands
  2. look off
  3. look on
  4. look on as
  5. look on the black side
  6. look on the bright side
  7. look on the bright side of it
  8. look on the dark side
  9. look on the dark side of it
  10. look on the gloomy side
  11. look on the positive side

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: look on the bright side (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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