English Explanatory Dictionary

seldom

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adv
  1. Infrequently, rarely.
adj
  1. Rare; infrequent.

Pronunciation

/ˈsɛldəm/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-seldom.wav en-us-seldom.ogg

Word forms

seldom more seldom seldomer most seldom seldomest seldome

Etymology

From late Middle English seldom, alteration of earlier selden by analogy with adverbial datives such as whilom, from Old English seldan (“seldom”), from Proto-West Germanic *seldanā, from Proto-Germanic *seldanē. Cognate with Saterland Frisian säilden (“seldom”), West Frisian selden, komselden (“rare, seldom”), Dutch zelden, German selten, Danish sjælden, Norwegian Bokmål sjelden, Norwegian Nynorsk sjeldan, Swedish sällan, Faroese sjáldan, Icelandic sjaldan. More at seld and selly.

Synonyms

barely hardly rarely scarcely infrequently seldomly seldom uncommonly unoften geason uncommon dearthy few and far between infrequent in short supply rare raresome scant scantling scarce selcouth seld selly superrare unfrequent

Antonyms

often frequently a lot feelefold manifold manyfold oft oftenly oftentimes ofttimes repeatedly unseldom

Related words

seld

Derived words

barking dogs seldom bite a barking dog seldom bites opportunity seldom knocks twice seldom or ever seldomtimes unseldom seldomly seldomness
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary