seldom

• POS: Adverb
• HYPHEN: sel=dom

CIDE DICTIONARY

seldom, adv. [AS. seldan, seldon, seldum, fr. seld rare; akin to OFries. sielden, D. zelden, G. selten, OHG. seltan, Icel. sjaldan, Dan. sielden, Sw. sällan, Goth. sildaleiks marvelous.].

 Rarely; not often; not frequently.  [1913 Webster]
"Wisdom and youth are seldom joined in one."  [1913 Webster]

seldom, a. 

 Rare; infrequent.  Jer. Taylor.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

seldom, adv. & adj.
--adv. rarely, not often.
--adj. rare, uncommon.

Etymology

OE seldan f. Gmc

THESAURUS

seldom

abnormally, at infrequent intervals, few, hardly, hardly ever, incredibly, infrequently, irregularly, little, not often, occasional, occasionally, rare, rarely, scarce, scarcely, scarcely ever, seldom if ever, sparsely, sporadic, sporadically, uncommon, uncommonly, uncustomarily, unexpectedly, unfrequent, unfrequently, unnaturally, unoften, unordinarily, unusually, very seldom

ROGET THESAURUS

seldom

Infrequency

N infrequency, rareness, rarity, fewness, seldomness, uncommonness, unfrequent, infrequent, rare, rare as a blue diamond, few, scarce, almost unheard of, unprecedented, which has not occurred within the memory of the ol, not within one's previous experience, not since Adam, scarce as hen's teeth, one in a million, few and far between, seldom, rarely, scarcely, hardly, not often, not much, infrequently, unfrequently, unoften, scarcely, scarcely ever, hardly ever, once in a blue moon, once, once in a blue moon, once in a million years, once for all, once in a way, pro hac vice, ein mal kein mal.