Etimology
From Middle English often, alteration (with final -n added due to analogy with Middle English selden (“seldom”)) of Middle English ofte, oft, from Old English oft (“often”), from Proto-Germanic *ufta, *uftō (“often”). Cognate with Scots oftin (“often”), North Frisian oftem (“often”), Saterland Frisian oafte (“often”), German oft (“often”), Pennsylvania German oft (“often”), Danish ofte (“often”), Norwegian Bokmål ofte (“often”), Norwegian Nynorsk ofte (“often”), Swedish ofta (“often”), and Icelandic oft (“often”).
adverb
often (comparative more often or oftener, superlative most often or oftenest)
Frequently; many times.
Examples
Synonyms: a lot, oftentimes, typically; see also Thesaurus:often
Antonyms: infrequently, occasionally, rarely, seldom, unoften; see also Thesaurus:rarely
I often walk to work when the weather is nice.
I’ve been going to the movies more often since a new theatre opened near me.
☞ This word [wrap] is often pronounced wrop, rhyming with top, even by ſpeakers much above the vulgar.
How often is the comfort of a whole family abridged by some trifling circumstance, that ought not to have made a visible impression!
Although frogs are able to swim well and often are found in water, they are really land animals.
According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
Related words
related terms
oft
adjective
often (comparative more often, superlative most often)
(archaic) Frequent.
Examples
[…] it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my travels; in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.
Then came the Ladies to visite him, and the Queene gaue him most gracious welcome, desiring him to be of good cheere: For heere is my Daughter right skilfull in the Art of Chirurgerie, that meanes to bee your often visitant.
The Shew-bread by an often remove, and renewing, was continually to stand before the Lord in his House […]