more often than not
more often than not adverb: usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
Adverb
more often than not (comparative form only)
- Usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
- Near-synonyms: commonly, frequently; usually; see also Thesaurus:usually
- More often than not, tomato seeds will sprout even if they are a couple of years old.
- Synonyms:
- most of the time, commonly, frequently, usually, as a rule, conventionally, customarily, in general, generally, habitually
more often than not meaning in Persian
more often than not in Persian
- more likely to be the case than not
- اکثر اوقات٬ اکثرا٬ معمولا٬ علیالقاعده
Synonyms of more often than not
- most of the time
- commonly
- frequently
- usually
- as a rule
- conventionally
- customarily
- in general
- generally
- habitually
7 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of more often than not
| alternative form | more often than naught |
|---|---|
| alternative form | more often than nought |
Origin of more often than not
Origin obscure. Semantically equivalent to, and often understood as, an ellipsis of more often than not so. Possibly sometimes understood as more often than zero (see nought and naught), especially in reference to scales or gauges where mark zero represents the midpoint of measurement or frequency.
Questions about more often than not
- What does more often than not mean?
- More often than not means usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
- What is more often than not in Persian?
- More often than not in Persian is اکثر اوقات٬ اکثرا٬ معمولا٬ علیالقاعده. See More often than not meaning in Persian.
- What part of speech is more often than not?
- More often than not is an adverb.
Words near more often than not in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: more often than not (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-more often than not.ogg.
Cite this entry: “more often than not.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/more_often_than_not. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.