every now and then

1. 1.

   occasionally

   “every so often she visits her father”

   Synonymsevery so often

Questions about every now and then

What does every now and then mean?

every now and then means "occasionally".

What is another word for every now and then?

Close synonyms include every so often. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is every now and then a common word?

every now and then is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.