Wiktionary

occasionally

English

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Etymology

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From occasional +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, /əˈkeɪʒnəli/, /əˈkeɪʒənli/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: oc‧ca‧sion‧al‧ly, oc‧casi‧onal‧ly, oc‧casion‧ally

Adverb

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occasionally (comparative more occasionally, superlative most occasionally)

  1. On occasion: at relatively infrequent intervals, from time to time, sometimes. [from 15th c.]
    • 1639, Henry Ainsworth, Annotations Upon the Five Books of Moses, the Book of the Psalmes and the Song of Songs, page 177:
      God ſetteth no houres for the morning or evening ſacrifice because they may occaſionally be changed.
    • 1855, Horace Mann, “On the Statistical Position of Religious Bodies in England and Wales”, in Journal of the Statistical Society of London, volume 18, number 2, page 152:
      Some perhaps worship only on alternate Sundays; others still more occasionally.
    • 1978, Stephen R. Graubard, “Twenty Years of 'Daedalus'”, in Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume 32, number 3, page 18:
      The journal, more occasionally, has turned to what might be called "fashionable" themes.
    • 2007 August 17, Matt Gouras/AP, “Wildfires Rage in Montana”, in Time:
      Flames could still be seen from town flaring up occasionally on a hill dotted with emergency vehicles.
  2. (obsolete) On an occasion, accidentally, by chance. [17th–18th c.]
    • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CLXI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC:
      Mr Tourville occasionally told his age; just turned of thirty-one.
    • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
      [N]othing gave him so much joy in conversation, as an opportunity of giving the company to understand, how well he was with persons of distinguished rank and character: he would often (for example) observe, as it were occasionally, that the duke of G— was one of the best natured men in the world […] .
    • 1790, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 103:
      I had met Lord Ossory in the forenoon, who had come to town occasionally.
  3. (obsolete) On the occasion of something else happening; incidentally, by the way. [15th–18th c.]
    • 1588, G[abriel] H[arvey], “The Fourth Letter. To the Same Favourable or Indifferent Reader.”, in J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Fovre Letters, and Certaine Sonnets, […] (Miscellaneous Tracts Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I), [London: s.n., published 1870], →OCLC, page 56:
      Were nothing els diſcourſively inſerted (as ſome little elſe occaſionally preſented it ſelfe), what paper more currently fit for the bareſt mechanicall uſes, [...]
    • 1619, John Richardson, John Toland, The Canon of the New Testament Vindicated, page 30:
      I think it is plain, that Origen, whatever Character he may have occaſionally given of this Book, did not judge it any part of the Canon...

Synonyms

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Translations

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