seldom
Use Seldom in a sentence
dəm adverb
1.
on only a few occasions; rarely; infrequently; not often: We seldom see our old neighbors anymore.
adjective
2.
rare; infrequent.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English seldum, variant of seldan; cognate with German selten, Gothic silda-
before 900; Middle English; Old English seldum, variant of seldan; cognate with German selten, Gothic silda-
Related forms
sel·dom·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
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Link To seldom
Collins
World English Dictionary
seldom (ˈsɛldəm) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adv | |
| not often; rarely | |
| [Old English seldon; related to Old Norse sjāldan, Old High German seltan] | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Seldom
is always a great word to know.
So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:
| a fool or simpleton; ninny. |
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
seldom
O.E. seldum, alteration of seldan "rare," on analogy of adverbial dative plurals in -um (e.g. whilom "at one time"), from P.Gmc. *selda- "strange, rare" (cf. O.N. sjaldan, O.Fris. selden, Du. zelden, Ger. selten), perhaps ult. from the base of self (q.v.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
Actors who are small and thin seldom make suffering effective.
Single events seldom determine the fate of a presidency.
She co-wrote and co-produced the film, and is seldom out of our sight.
Seldom does one get to enjoy the spectacle of raw data fitted so precisely to theoretical curves.
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