now and then

Questions about now and then

What does now and then mean?

now and then means "sporadically and infrequently".

What is another word for now and then?

Close synonyms include occasionally, on occasion, once in a while, now and again, at times. 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 now and then a common word?

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.