Often

How to spell often

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce often

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does often mean?

1. adverbMany times; frequently; on numerous occasions.

Often in a sentence

• She travels for work so often that the airline staff recognise her.

• We often eat dinner late because of the long commute home.

Where does often come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grew out of the Old English adverb 'oft', which simply meant 'frequently' and belongs to the native Germanic stock of English. By the late Middle Ages 'oft' had acquired an extended form 'often', and one common explanation is that the longer ending arose by analogy with 'seldom', its everyday opposite, smoothing the run of words like 'oft seen' into 'often seen'. The older bare form 'oft' lingered in poetry and survives in compounds such as 'oft-quoted' and 'oft-repeated'. For a long time the letter t in 'often' was silent, the same way it is in 'soften', 'listen', and 'fasten', which is the heart of the modern spelling trap: the word sounds like 'off-en' for many speakers even though the t is firmly written. A spelling-pronunciation has since revived an audible t for some, but the silent-t tradition explains why writers must remember the letter is there at all.

How the word is built

• oft (frequently)
• -en (adverbial extension)