Word.ws English Dictionary

rarely

Syllables: rare·lyUK/ˈɹɛːli//ˈɹɛəɹli/

rarely adverb: not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often.

Adverb

rarely (comparative rarelier or more rarely, superlative rareliest or most rarely)

  1. Not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often.
    • We rarely go to the theatre.
    • Rarely do you ever find an eagle this far up the river.
  2. Unusually well; excellently.
    • After all the schooling, I can finally write rarely now.
  3. To a rare degree; very.
    • I became a rarely good judge of the best in modern painting.
    • others speake very honourably of his life and death, and in all other circumstances declare him to have beene a most excellent and rarely virtuous man.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 32, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

rarely meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

rarely in Tamil

அரிதாக, அருநிகழ்வாக, அடிக்கடியில்லாமல், அருகலாக, அபூர்வமாக, அத்தி பூத்தாற்போல்

rarely in Marathi

क्वचितच, क्वचित

rarely in Urdu

rarely
الا ماشاء اللہ illā māśā' allāh

rarely in Bengali

কদাচ, কদাচিৎ, বিরলভাবে, ক্বচিৎ, কদাপি, বাছাই করিয়া
More languagesFewer languages
rarely in Telugu
అరుదుగా
rarely in Malayalam
വിരളം viraḷaṁ
rarely in Kannada
ಎಡಚಿಬಿಡಚಿ
rarely in Gujarati
ભાગ્યે bhāgye
rarely in Odia
କ୍ୱଚିତ୍
rarely in Nepali
विरलै, विरलै नै
rarely in Arabic
قَلِيلًا qalīlan, قَلِيلًا مَا qalīlan mā, قَلَّمَا qallamā, نَادِرًا nādiran

Examples of rarely in a sentence

  • The cold truth is that states rarely undertake military action unless their national interests are at stake.
  • The forms inheritress and inheritrix are used only in literature, and then but rarely.
  • Although many grapevines have geographical names, these rarely reflect their real origin, if known at all.

All 40 example sentences with rarely

Synonyms of rarely

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of rarely

Forms of rarely

comparativerarelier
comparativemore rarely
superlativerareliest
superlativemost rarely

Origin of rarely

From rare + -ly.

Questions about rarely

What does rarely mean?
Rarely means not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often.
What is rarely in Tamil?
Rarely in Tamil is அரிதாக, அருநிகழ்வாக, அடிக்கடியில்லாமல். See Rarely meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is rarely?
Rarely is an adverb.
How do you pronounce rarely?
Rarely is pronounced /ˈɹɛːli/ (UK).

Words near rarely in the dictionary

  1. rarefy
  2. rarefying
  3. rareish
  4. rarelier
  5. rareliest
  6. rarely
  7. rareness
  8. rarenesses
  9. rarepair
  10. rarepairs
  11. rarer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rarely (page history and authors); rarely (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rarely (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); الا ماشاء اللہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); rarely (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rarely (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); വിരളം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); rarely (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ભાગ્યે (Gujarati) (page history and authors); rarely (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rarely (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rarely.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rarely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rarely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.