Either-or

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A situation in which there is a choice between two different plans of action, but both together are not possible.

    "“There’s a misperception out there that if some women are succeeding, that if many women are succeeding, it’s at the detriment of men,” he said. “When we support women, as men, it’s a good thing. The more women that succeed, there’s benefits to families, benefits to the economy, and benefits to our country. It’s not an either/or.”"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Describing a situation in which there are only two choices. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Describing a situation in which there is a choice between two different plans of action, but both together are not possible. not-comparable

Example

More examples

"It's not an either-or situation."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.