the other way around
102
3.2
- idiom
:
al revés
- He expected to be the leader of the team, but it turned out to be the other way around.
- rather than the other way around
- work the other way around
Now of course you can go the other way around.
- Now of course you can go the other way around.
- It's action that defines character and not the other way around.
- By realizing that I work for them, not the other way around.
- Pan normally hits people, not the other way around.
- Reason is going to be doing angers bidding, not the other way around.
- No, the anger cannot manage me, it must be the other way around.
- Energy always flows from hot to cold, not the other way around.
- So there's a quote that says men chase women, not the other way around.
- To face the future or to put it the other way around.
- Oh, consciousness is we exist because of consciousness, not the other way around.
Examples
-
Of course, it could work the other way around as well.
Academic text (2011) -
How would the two of you feel if it were the other way around?
Fiction book (1992) -
No, it's the other way around, he says.
-
Then why not the other way around?
-
More like the other way around.
-
Usually the other way around.
-
Or was it the other way around?
-
The mind controls the body, not the other way around.
-
Children then are the model for adults, and not the other way around.
Academic text (2004) -
Now I'd say it's the other way around.
Synonyms
62
4.4
The opposite is also true
40
1.4
Toward an earlier time
30
1.8
Turned so the top is where the bottom normally is
6
5.8
One thing increases while another decreases
1
7.2
In the opposite way
1
5.8
It happens the other way or on the other side
In a way that is the opposite of what was said
Presented in the opposite order, from last to first
How Backward
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is transparently composed from 'other' (different/opposite), 'way' (manner/direction), and 'around' (turned/reversed), so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer 'the opposite order/direction'. This construction is a common, literal combination (motion/direction + modifier) and has clear parallels in many languages, supporting immediate understandability at B1.
Etymology
The other way around comes from the simple image of turning something so its front and back swap places — turning it the other way around. So it means the order or direction is 'reversed' or the 'opposite way'.