Word.ws English Dictionary

every so often

every so often adverb: occasionally; intermittently; irregularly; now and then; once in a while.

Adverb

every so often (not comparable)

  1. Occasionally; intermittently; irregularly; now and then; once in a while.
    • Check on the houseplants every so often to see if they need watering.
    • But Raven knows where he's going. Occasionally, he reaches out, grabs her hand, but he doesn't yank her around even though she's going a lot slower than he is. Every so often, he looks back at her with a grin, like, I could hurt you, but I won't.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 321

Questions about every so often

What does every so often mean?
Every so often means occasionally; intermittently; irregularly; now and then; once in a while.
What part of speech is every so often?
Every so often is an adverb.

Words near every so often in the dictionary

  1. every second
  2. every shut eye isn't asleep
  3. every silver lining has a cloud
  4. every single
  5. every single time
  6. every so often
  7. every step of the way
  8. every stick has two ends
  9. every thing
  10. every time
  11. every time one farts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: every so often (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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