once in a while

Questions about once in a while

What does once in a while mean?

once in a while means "sporadically and infrequently".

What is another word for once in a while?

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

once in a while 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.