‘At the end of the day’ – English idiom with meaning and examples

by Jakub Marian

Tip: See my list of the Most Common Mistakes in English. It will teach you how to avoid mis­takes with com­mas, pre­pos­i­tions, ir­reg­u­lar verbs, and much more.

At the end of the day is an idiomatic expression meaning “ultimately”, “in the end”, and it also often has a flavour of “after all”. For example:

You don’t have to clean your room, but at the end of the day it will be you who will have to live in a mess.
Workers staggered around, half-drunk, taking with them at the end of the day everything they could carry—doorknobs, faucets, nails. [From A Mountain of Crumbs by E. Gorokhova]

By the way, if you haven’t read my guide on how to avoid the most common mistakes in English, make sure to check it out; it deals with similar topics.

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