seldom

English

Etymology

Old English seldan.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɛldəm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adverb

seldom (comparative more seldom, superlative most seldom)

1. infrequently, rarely.

   They seldom come here now.

   • 2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, New York Times:

     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?

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

Translations

infrequently, rarely

• Afrikaans: selde (af)
• Albanian: rrallë (sq)
• Arabic: نادرًا (ar) (nādiran)
• Armenian: հազվադեպ (hy) (hazvadep)
• Azeri: az (az)
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: рэдка (be) (rédka)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: рядко (bg) (rjádko)
• Catalan: rarament (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 很少 (han2 siu2), (colloquial) 好少 (hou2 siu2)

  Mandarin: 很少 (cmn) (hěnshǎo)

  Min Dong: please add this translation if you can

  Min Nan: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: zřídka (cs)
• Danish: sjælden (da)
• Dutch: zelden (nl)
• Esperanto: malofte (eo)
• Estonian: harva (et)
• Faroese: sjáldan (fo)
• Finnish: harvoin (fi)
• French: rarement (fr)
• Georgian: იშვიათად (ka) (išviat'ad)
• German: selten (de)
• Greek: σπάνια (el) (spánia)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: कभी कभी (hi) (kabhī kabhī)
• Hungarian: ritkán (hu)
• Icelandic: sjaldan (is)
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: raramente (it), di rado (it)
• Japanese: 稀に (ja) (まれに, mare ni), 滅多に…ない (ja) (めったに…ない, mettani ... nai) (with negative verbs)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kashmiri: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: аз (kk) (az), сирек (kk) (sïrek)
• Khmer: មិនសូវ (km) (mɨn sǝv)

• Korean: 좀체로...않게 (jomcheoro ... anke), 드물게 (ko) (deumulge)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: به‌ده‌گمان

• Kyrgyz: аз (ky) (az)
• Latin: rārē (la), rārenter (la), rārō (la)
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: ретко (mk) (rétko)
• Malay: jarang (ms)
• Norwegian: please add this translation if you can

  Bokmål: sjelden (no)

  Nynorsk: sjeldan (nn)

• Persian: به ندرت (fa) (be nodtrat)
• Polish: rzadko (pl)
• Portuguese: raramente (pt)
• Romanian: rar (ro), rareori (ro)
• Russian: редко (ru) (rédko), изредка (ru) (ízredka)
• Scottish Gaelic: ainneamh (gd)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ретко (sh), ријетко (sh)

  Roman: retko (sh), rijetko (sh)

• Slovak: zriedka (sk)
• Slovene: rédko (sl)
• Spanish: raramente (es), rara vez (es)
• Sundanese: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: sällan (sv)
• Tagalog: please add this translation if you can
• Tajik: please add this translation if you can
• Tatar: аз (tt) (az)
• Thai: ไม่บ่อย (th) (mâi bòi)
• Turkish: az (tr)
• Turkmen: az (tk)
• Ukrainian: рідко (uk) (rídko), зрідка (uk) (zrídka)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: oz (uz)
• Vietnamese: ít khi (vi)
• Volapük: selediko (vo), seledo (vo)
• Welsh: anfynych (cy)
• Yiddish: זעלטן (yi) (zeltn)

Adjective

seldom (comparative more seldom, superlative most seldom)

1. (obsolete) rare; infrequent

   A suppressed and seldom anger. — Jeremy Taylor.

Translations

Translations

• Georgian: ღარიბი (ka) (ḡaribi)

Anagrams

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