seldom
/ˈsɛldəm/
seldom adverb: infrequently, rarely.
Adverb
seldom (comparative more seldom or seldomer, superlative most seldom or seldomest)
- Infrequently, rarely.
- They seldom come here now.
- I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- barely, hardly, rarely, scarcely, infrequently, seldomly, uncommonly, unoften
- Antonyms:
- often, frequently, a lot, feelefold, manifold, manyfold, oft, oftenly, oftentimes, ofttimes
Adjective
seldom (comparative more seldom or seldomer, superlative most seldom or seldomest)
- Rare; infrequent.
- a suppressed and seldom anger1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC
- He was very curious in his garden, which was never out of order; in which he would at seldom times take a short walk or two, not enduring to see a weed in it.1850, Vignaud Pamphlets: Sir Isaac Newton, page 513
- Synonyms:
- geason, uncommon, dearthy, few and far between, infrequent, in short supply, non-common, rare, raresome, scant
seldom meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
seldom in Hindi
- infrequently, rarely
- कभी कभी kabhī kabhī
seldom in Tamil
- எப்போதாவது, அரிதாக
seldom in Marathi
- seldom, rarely
- क्वचित kvacit
seldom in Urdu
- infrequently, rarely
- کبھی کبھی kabhī kabhī
More languagesFewer languages
- seldom in Bengali
- কদাপি kodapi
- seldom in Malayalam
- ചുരുക്കം മാത്രം
- seldom in Kannada
- ಅಪರೂಪವಾಗಿ, ಒಮ್ಮೊಮ್ಮೆ, ವಿರಳವಾಗಿ, ಎಲ್ಲೋ ಒಂದೊಂದು ಸಲ
- seldom in Tagalog
- bihira
- seldom in Arabic
- نَادِرًا nādiran
- seldom in Malay
- jarang
- seldom in Indonesian
- jarang
- seldom in Persian
- ندرت nodrat, به ندرت be nodrat
- seldom in Thai
- ไม่บ่อย mâi-bɔ̀i
- seldom in Vietnamese
- ít khi
- seldom in Myanmar
- ဆယ်ခါတစ်ခါ hcaihkatachka, ဖြစ်ခေါင့်ဖြစ်ခဲ hprachkaung.hprachkai:
Examples of seldom in a sentence
- Reality or nightmare, I needed a drink as I had seldom needed one before.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 21:
- No well-meaning friends sayin' bad things / No friends' telephone that only seldom rings / No lingering doubts that try to bring me down / Can turn my love around or make me give up, darling1974, Tom Brock, “There's Nothing In This World That Can Stop Me From Loving You”, in I Love You More And More:
- Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens.1984, 20:05 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), →OCLC:
- People who talk about an imminent possibility of war seldom pose this question: What would North Korea’s leadership get from unleashing a war that they are likely to lose in weeks, if not days?2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times:
Synonyms of seldom
15 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of seldom
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more seldom |
| comparative | seldomer |
| superlative | most seldom |
| superlative | seldomest |
| alternative form (obsolete) | seldome |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more seldom |
| comparative | seldomer |
| superlative | most seldom |
| superlative | seldomest |
Origin of seldom
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.
Words formed from seldom
Words that rhyme with seldom
Questions about seldom
- What does seldom mean?
- Seldom means infrequently, rarely.
- What is seldom in Hindi?
- Seldom in Hindi is कभी कभी (kabhī kabhī). See Seldom meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use seldom in a sentence?
- Reality or nightmare, I needed a drink as I had seldom needed one before.
- What part of speech is seldom?
- Seldom can be an adverb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce seldom?
- Seldom is pronounced /ˈsɛldəm/.
Words near seldom in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: seldom (page history and authors); seldom (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); क्वचित (Marathi) (page history and authors); seldom (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); seldom (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-seldom.wav.
Cite this entry: “seldom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/seldom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.