ten to one

idiom

informal
: very likely
Ten to one they'll lose.

Examples of ten to one in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web China has embassies in nine Pacific Island countries (the United States has them in eight), and Chinese diplomats vastly outnumber U.S. diplomats, sometimes by a factor of ten to one. Charles Edel, Foreign Affairs, 10 Oct. 2024 As such, the Russian approach differs strikingly from China’s far more comprehensive and long-term strategy, which aims at building a worldwide imperium and whose economic interests in Africa dwarf Russia’s by a measure of almost ten to one. Stephen Smith, Foreign Affairs, 10 Mar. 2022 And certainly not by margins of nine or ten to one. Derek Newton, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023 New York City’s right-to-shelter laws stipulate that the ratio of residents to showers in a facility must be no greater than ten to one. Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2023 Ayano Tsukimi’s dolls now outnumber the villagers ten to one. Fritz Schumann, Foreign Affairs, 29 Mar. 2015 This year the ratio has been ten to one. IEEE Spectrum, 14 Mar. 2023 And most people’s ideal ratio is something under ten to one. Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 16 Feb. 2022 Moths species outnumber butterflies by almost ten to one. Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 July 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ten to one.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Ten to one.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ten%20to%20one. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

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