few and far between

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj

Rare and scarce; hard to find.

Pronunciation

en-au-few and far between.ogg

Word forms

few and far between fewer and further between fewer and farther between fewest and furthest between fewest and farthest between

Etymology

Attested at least since the 17th century. Was originally reserved for physical objects, such as houses, appearing with wide gaps between, but today it is also applied to more abstract things. Being rare also implies that the average gaps between the objects are wide.

Synonyms

thin on the ground deficient in short supply wanting lacking uncommon rare dearthy few and far between geason infrequent raresome scant scantling scarce selcouth seld seldom selly superrare unfrequent

Antonyms

far and wide thick on the ground common widespread abundant ubiquitous

Related words

thick and fast

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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