one by one
Each in turn
One by one describes things happening or being dealt with individually and in sequence, rather than all together.
It emphasizes a methodical, single-item progression: The students filed into the auditorium one by one.
The phrase often suggests patience, deliberateness, or thoroughness, as when someone addresses problems or items on a list separately rather than as a batch.
- individuallyOne at a time
- singlyOne at a time
- separatelyIn distinct portions
- severallyEach considered apart
- successiveFollowing without interruption
consecutive · incremental · piece by piece · phased · sequentially · discretely · stepwise · itemizing · systematic · serial · each · independently · alone · cataloging · slowly · queue · drip · march
- sequence wordsfirst, second, third, next, fourth
- one after anotherin a row, in order, back-to-back, in turn, consecutive
- gradual phrasesbit by bit, little by little, step by step, piece by piece, inch by inch
- counting phrasescount to ten, on three, countdown, count off
one by oneall together
In one collective action
collectively · en masse · together · as a whole · jointly
one by onesimultaneously
At the same instant
all at once · at the same time · concurrently · in parallel · at once