So the deal is that I understand the difference between another and the other when they are alone: the other means the exact one while another isn't that specific. BUT is the difference the same when using the expressions "one after another" and "one after the other"?

They left one after another.

They left one after the other. (Or does this mean there were only two people?)


Both these expressions idiomatically mean exactly the same thing, that any number of people or things went in a series, one at a time, each following the previous.

Cambridge dictionary states this:

one after another
(also one after the other)
many, in a series

Neither variation suggests how many are in the sequence, or limit it to a number.

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