The Meaning of Seldom: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know the definition of seldom? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on the word seldom, including its definition, etymology, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What does the word seldom mean?

According to Collins English Dictionary and the American Heritage Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, the word seldom is an adverb that means infrequent or unusually. The word seldom is two syllables – sel-dom, and the pronunciation of seldom is seldəm. 

Many different languages also contain words that mean seldom. You may notice that some of these translations of seldom look and sound similar to the word seldom. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases that look, sound, and mean something similar while they are words of different languages. These are often formed when two words have the same root or language of origin. This list of translations of the word seldom is provided by Word Sense.

  •  Khmer: មិនសូវ‎ (mɨn sǝv)
  •  Russian: ре́дко‎, и́зредка‎
  •  Czech: zřídka‎
  •  Icelandic: sjaldan‎
  •  Asturian: raramente‎
  •  Armenian: հազվադեպ‎
  •  Macedonian: ретко‎
  •  Lao: ບໍ່ສູ້‎
  •  Faroese: sjáldan‎
  •  Lithuanian: retai‎, nedažnai‎
  •  Cantonese: 很少‎ (han2 siu2), (colloquial) 好少‎ (hou2 siu2)
  •  Urdu: کبھی کبھی‎ (kabhī kabhī)
  •  Tajik: нудратан‎, кушод-кушод‎
  •  Japanese: 稀‎, 滅多‎ (with negative verbs)
  •  Persian: ندرت‎ (be-nodrat), به ندرت‎ (be nodtrat)
  •  Finnish: harvoin‎
  •  Volapük: selediko‎, seledo‎
  •  Estonian: harva‎
  •  Albanian: rrallë‎
  •  Slovak: zriedka‎
  •  Malay: jarang‎
  •  Nynorsk: sjeldan‎
  •  Bulgarian: ря́дко‎
  •  Latvian: reti‎
  •  Bengali: কদাপি‎ (kôdapi)
  •  Scottish Gaelic: ainneamh‎
  •  Dutch: zelden‎
  •  Hebrew: לעיתים רחוקות‎
  •  Belarusian: рэ́дка‎
  •  Tagalog: bihira‎
  •  Danish: sjælden‎
  •  Polish: rzadko‎
  •  Korean: 좀체로…않게‎ (jomcheoro … anke), 드물게‎
  •  German: selten‎
  •  Cebuano: talagsa‎
  •  Indonesian: jarang‎
  •  Hindi: कभी कभी‎ (kabhī kabhī)
  •  Mandarin: 很少‎ (hěnshǎo), 伄儅‎ (diàodāng)
  •  Slovene: rédko‎
  •  Latin: rārē‎, rārenter‎, rārō‎
  •  French: rarement‎
  •  Catalan: rarament‎
  •  Maltese: rari‎
  •  Sorani: به‌ده‌گمان‎
  •  Yiddish: זעלטן‎ (zeltn)
  •  Cyrillic: ретко‎, ријетко‎
  •  Greek: σπάνια‎
  •  Uzbek: oz‎
  •  Kazakh: аз‎, сирек‎
  •  Turkmen: az‎
  •  Georgian: იშვიათად‎
  •  Esperanto: malofte‎
  •  Afrikaans: selde‎
  •  Roman: retko‎, rijetko‎
  •  Romanian: rar‎, rareori‎
  •  Tatar: аз‎, сирәк‎
  •  Ukrainian: рі́дко‎, зрі́дка‎
  •  Thai: ไม่บ่อย‎ (mâi bòi)
  •  Burmese: ဆယ်ခါတစ်ခါ‎, ဖြစ်ခေါင့်ဖြစ်ခဲ‎
  •  Kyrgyz: аз‎
  •  Swedish: sällan‎
  •  Spanish: raramente‎, rara vez‎
  •  Swahili: nadra‎
  •  Irish: annamh‎
  •  Arabic: نَادِرًا‎
  •  Hungarian: ritkán‎
  •  Turkish: az‎
  •  Azeri: az‎
  •  Portuguese: raramente‎
  •  Vietnamese: ít khi‎
  •  Mongolian: хааяа нэг‎
  •  Italian: raramente‎, di rado‎
  •  Bokmål: sjelden‎
  •  Welsh: anfynych‎

What is the origin of the word seldom?

According to Etymonline, the word seldom has been used since c15 as the Early Middle English and Late Old English seldum, Old English seldon, Old English seldan, and Old English selcuð/seld-cuð, an alteration of seldan and the superlative seldost from the Proto-Germanic selda. This old form  created cognates such as the Dutch zeldzaam, Old Norse sjaldan, Old Frisian selden, Dutch zelden, Old High German seltan, German selten, German seltsam, Old Norse sjāldan, and more. Shakespeare used seld-shown. 

What are synonyms and antonyms of seldom?

There are many different words that a person can use in place of the word seldom. These words with the same definition as the word seldom are called synonyms. Learning synonyms is a great way to expand your vocabulary, as well as to avoid repeating yourself in spoken and written English. This list of synonyms of seldom is from Power Thesaurus

  •   rarely
  •  few
  •  hardly
  •  not much
  •  little
  •  irregularly
  •  barely
  •  once in a blue moon
  •  at times
  •  just barely
  •  sporadic
  •  semioccasional
  •  once in a while
  •  once or twice
  •  not notably
  •  scarcely
  •  infrequent
  •  in few instances
  •  peculiarly
  •  not noticeably
  •  scarce
  •  infrequently
  •  unfrequently
  •  just
  •  not by much
  •  now and then
  •  from time to time
  •  sometimes
  •  sporadically
  •  unfrequent
  •  on rare occasions
  •  occasional
  •  unusually
  •  scarcely ever
  •  rare
  •  almost not
  •  not measurably
  •  by a hair
  •  almost never
  •  occasionally
  •  almost inconceivably
  •  not often
  •  not a bit
  •  hardly ever
  •  not markedly
  •  uncommon
  •  once in blue moon
  •  unoften
  •  oddly
  •  uncommonly

There are also numerous different words with the opposite meaning as seldom. These are called antonyms, which are another great way to expand your English language vocabulary. These antonyms for seldom are also provided by Power Thesaurus

  •  frequently
  •  again and again
  •  a lot
  •  as often as not
  •  unceasingly
  •  most commonly
  •  commonly
  •  customarily
  •  sometimes
  •  forever
  •  regularly
  •  additional
  •  ordinarily
  •  perpetually
  •  almost always
  •  bare
  •  invariably
  •  common
  •  appears to
  •  continually
  •  all too common
  •  ofttimes
  •  usually
  •  routinely
  •  many times
  •  commonplace
  •  as a rule
  •  habitually
  •  oftentimes
  •  at every turn
  •  24-7
  •  bunch of times
  •   endlessly
  •  other
  •  frequently enough
  •  numerously
  •  many occasions
  •  lot of times
  •  generally
  •  household
  •  lot of the time
  •  everyday
  •  day in
  •  consistently
  •  enough times
  •  over and over again
  •  entire time
  •  everlastingly
  •  many a time
  •  numerous occasions
  •  more
  •  hourly
  •  ordinary
  •  dime a dozen
  •  every time
  •  over and over
  •  most cases
  •  on many occasions
  •  numerous times
  •  eternally
  •  plenty of times
  •  perennially
  •  number of times
  •  more than one occasion
  •  evermore
  •  on numerous occasions
  •  extra
  •  frequent
  •  most of the time
  •  heart and soul
  •  habitual
  •  in many instances
  •  more than once
  •  frequent intervals
  •  fairly common
  •  new
  •  familiar
  •  day out
  •  on several occasions
  •  persistently
  •  often enough
  •  lots of times
  •  continuously
  •  all day
  •  always
  •  incessantly
  •  constantly
  •  so much
  •  awful lot
  •  all-too-common
  •  chronically
  •  oft
  •  all time to come
  •  in many cases
  •  all along
  •  repeatedly
  •  all the time
  •  too often
  •  ever
  •  often

How can the word seldom be used in a sentence?

The word seldom (adv.) can be used in many different ways in natural sounding English. Using words in a sentence is a great way to memorize their definitions. You can also try making flashcards or a quiz to test your knowledge of different words’ definitions. Try using this word of the day in a sentence today! Below are several examples of the word seldom being used in a sentence to help get your started. 

There were seldom allegations or complaints made about the use of force from the specific NYPD officers, but the civilian complaint review board saw an uptick for the eighth straight season in recent years. 

He seldom enjoyed movies, but he saw quality prospects coming to theaters in February, including Lack of Power, Serious Discipline, and FiveThirtyEight. 

There was seldom such a powerful message shared in capitol council meetings, but Anna gave the most emotional speech the board had ever seen. 

Overall, the word seldom means

Sources:

  1. seldom: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense 
  2. Seldom synonyms – 282 Words and Phrases for Seldom | Power Thesaurus 
  3. seldom | Origin and meaning of seldom | Online Etymology Dictionary 
  4. Seldom antonyms – 584 Opposites of Seldom | Power Thesaurus 
  5. Seldom definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary