be able to count somebody/something on (the fingers of) one ˈhand. used to say that the total number of somebody/something is very small: She could count on the fingers of one hand the people she actually enjoyed being with.

What does count on one hand mean?

said to mean that there are surprisingly few of the things mentioned. I could count the jobs advertised each year on the fingers of one hand.

Which is correct on one hand or on the one hand?

"On the one hand" is clearly a figure of speech. On the other hand, "on one hand" can be a literal reference to a person's hand. As a native British English speaker, I would always use "on the one hand … on the other hand" in the OP's context.

Can you count with one hand?

A phrase used to emphasize that something happens rarely. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she's babysat for me." If you loaned Andy money, good luck getting it back. ...

Is thumb a finger?

A thumb is a digit, but not technically a finger. Many people don't make the distinction between thumbs and other digits.

How high can you count on your fingers? (Spoiler: much higher than 10) - James Tanton

How high can you count on 5 fingers?

The human hand has 5 fingers, or to be precise, one thumb and four fingers. So, with both hands, it's very easy to count to 10. In this case, there's no particular order in which an individual assigns a value to a particular finger.

How do you use one hand in a sentence?

On the one hand I'd like a job which pays more, but on the other hand I enjoy the work I'm doing at the moment. 3. On the one hand, if the body doesn't have enough cholesterol, we would not be able to survive. On the other hand, if the body has too much cholesterol, the excess begins to line the arteries.

What is the meaning of one hand?

Also, on one hand. As one point of view, from one standpoint. This phrase is often paired with on the other hand to indicate two sides of an issue. For example, On the one hand this car is expensive; on the other hand, it's available and we need it right now. [

Can I say on the other hand without on the one hand?

Yes, if you say "on the other hand" without a preceding "on the one hand", that meaning is implied. Indeed, people often use the idiom this way in conversation, as opposed to writing, when at the time they make the first statement, they have not considered that there is a drawback or an alternative.

What does it mean when you count words on your fingers?

Arithmomania is a mental disorder that may be seen as an expression of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Individuals suffering from this disorder have a strong need to count their actions or objects in their surroundings.

How many fingers are in your hand?

Human hands contain fourteen digital bones, also called phalanges, or phalanx bones: two in the thumb (the thumb has no middle phalanx) and three in each of the four fingers.

How do you write on one hand?

Use these conjunctive adverbs to contrast two ideas. On the one hand cannot be used alone. If you start a sentence with on the one hand, then you must pair it with on the other hand to introduce the second idea: On the one hand, I love the freedom of working freelance.

What does the idiom have one hand?

on the one hand ... on the other hand

used when you are comparing two different facts or two opposite ways of thinking about a situation: On the one hand I'd like a job that pays more, but on the other hand I enjoy the work I'm doing at the moment.

Is there a comma after on one hand?

On the other hand is not a conjunction. It goes at the beginning of the second clause and is usually separated from the rest of the sentence with a comma. It can also go in the middle of the sentence.

Is the pinky a finger?

The little finger, often called the pinky in American English and pinkie in Scottish English (from the Dutch word pink, meaning little finger), is the most ulnar and usually smallest finger of the human hand, opposite the thumb, next to the ring finger.

Is the pinky finger offensive in Japan?

For example, in the U.S. and many other countries, putting your pinky up is usually a sign of pretending to be fancy. ... But in Japan “pinky up” doesn't mean “fancy,” it means “women,” usually referring to someone's girlfriend/mistress/love of their love that they just met five minutes ago.

Why is a pinky called a pinky?

The word "pinkie" is derived from the Dutch word pink, meaning "little finger". ... The term (sometimes spelled "pinky") is common in Scottish English and American English, and is also used extensively in other commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia.

Why do we count to 10?

Nature gave us ten fingers, and so it is natural for us to count in tens. ... Machines count bigger numbers in the same way we do: by counting how many times they run out of digits. This system is called binary and the binary number 10 means the machine ran out of digits one time. A human would call this number two.

How high does binary go?

A binary number can represent an analog voltage. An 8 bit number, for example, represents a decimal number from 0 to 255 (or −128 to +127 if two's complement representation is used). An 8 bit number could therefore represent a voltage from 0 to 2.55 V, say, with a resolution of 10 mV.

Do we have 8 fingers?

Ask an evolutionary biologist, however, and you're likely to get a much simpler answer: We have 10 fingers and 10 toes because, somewhere in our species' past Darwinian wanderings, those numbers gave us an evolutionary advantage. Had events tumbled differently, we might have eight fingers and twelve toes.

Why do we have five fingers?

In fact, the ancestor of all modern tetrapods — mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds — had five digits on each of its four limbs back in the Devonian period, 420 to 360 million years ago. ... Essentially, we have five digits because our ancestors did.

Are toes digits?

Toes are the digits of the foot. The toe refers to part of the human foot, with five toes present on each human foot. Each toe consists of three phalanx bones, the proximal, middle, and distal, with the exception of the big toe (Latin: Hallux).