Seldom

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsÉ›ldÉ™m/

Origin

Old English seldan. Compare German selten.

Full definition of seldom

Adverb

1. Infrequently, rarely.
   They seldom come here now.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 8, 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.
• 2013, April 9, Andrei Lankov, Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff., 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?
• 2013-06-01, End of the peer show, Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

Usage notes

It is grammatically a negative word. It therefore collocates with ever rather than never.

Compare He seldom ever plays tennis. with He almost never plays tennis.

Synonyms

• barely
• hardly
• rarely
• scarcely
• infrequently

Antonyms

• often
• frequently

Adjective

1. (obsolete) rare; infrequentA suppressed and seldom anger. — Jeremy Taylor.

Anagrams

• models