Which statement applies to a one-to-many relationship?

In a one-to-many relationship, the defining characteristic is that each entity on the "many" side is associated with one and only one entity on the "one" side. This means that while multiple instances of the many side can relate back to a single instance of the one side, the reverse is not true—each instance on the one side does not connect to more than one instance on the many side.

For example, consider a database where customers can place multiple orders. Each order (many side) is associated with one specific customer (one side), but a single customer can have multiple orders. This perfectly illustrates the one-to-many relationship: the orders depend on the customer, and each order is related to only one customer.

Recognizing this structure is crucial for database design and helps in understanding how to effectively manage and query the data. This concept also helps avoid redundancy and inconsistency in the database.