Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb Many times; frequently.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Many times; many a time; frequently; not seldom; not rarely: same as
oft , and now the usual form. - Synonyms Often, Frequently. Where these words differ, often is the simpler and stronger, and expresses the more regular recurrence: as, I often take that path and frequently meet him on the way.
- Frequent; repeated.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb Frequently; many times; not seldom.
- adjective rare Frequent; common; repeated.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb
Frequently ,many times .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb many times at short intervals
- adverb in many cases or instances
- adverb frequently or in great quantities
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We may not often have such hot summers in winter, but neither do we _often_ have such cold winters in summer.
Béarn and the Pyrenees A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre Louisa Stuart Costello 1834
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As far as my observations extend, few, if any, of all the devotees to this stupefying substance, ever resort to its use without some supposed necessity; and often, alas _too often_, by the advice of physicians.
A Dissertation on the Medical Properties and Injurious Effects of the Habitual Use of Tobacco Moses Stuart 1816
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_I often had been often_ F1. _often had been_ (om.
Two Gentlemen of Verona The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] William Shakespeare 1590
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Giving a name to difficult problems that are poorly understood provides a kind of false comfort, but the label often doesn't really add to the understanding and may carry risks of its own -- especially unnecessary treatment, stigma and wasted resources.
Allen Frances: Why Are Kids Suddenly So Sick? Allen Frances 2012
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I think we can be a force multiplied, which is a term often used by law enforcement, where private industry serves as additional eyes and ears to help authorities to uncover these activities to protect the public, Frantz said.
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"Entrepreneur" is a term often used, but seldom defined.
Getting Indian Entrepreneurship Right Ashley Lenihan 2011
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Since then, Chinese Internet companies have announced efforts to crack down on "rumors"—a term often understood to mean information that the Communist Party finds undesirable—while city governments are enacting new rules that would require users of Twitter-like microblogs and other services to register their real names with the companies before posting.
China Culls 'Low Taste' Shows Carlos Tejada 2012
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Giving a name to difficult problems that are poorly understood provides a kind of false comfort, but the label often doesn't really add to the understanding and may carry risks of its own -- especially unnecessary treatment, stigma and wasted resources.
Allen Frances: Why Are Kids Suddenly So Sick? Allen Frances 2012
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"China was liberated 60 years ago," wrote one Weibo user, borrowing a term often used by the government to describe the Communist Party's rise to power.
Chinese Police Free 30 Held as Slaves in Kilns Brian Spegele 2011
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I think we can be a force multiplied, which is a term often used by law enforcement, where private industry serves as additional eyes and ears to help authorities to uncover these activities to protect the public, Frantz said.
gerwitz commented on the word often
I have witnessed the reintroduction of the hard t in often among the educated during my lifetime. Perhaps merely because I am a curmudgeon, this grates against my nerves.
July 28, 2007
reesetee commented on the word often
Well, if you're a curmudgeon, gerwitz, then so am I. :-)
July 29, 2007
dgstone commented on the word often
Brings to mind a section in the Pirates of Penzance.
March 13, 2008
milosrdenstvi commented on the word often
I know of no other word in English which has such a wide-spread variant pronunciation of the common Americans around me. I do not pronounce the t, but many people do.
As dgstone has alluded to -- you've got to be able to make the hilarious puns with orphan!
October 19, 2009