Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

more often than not

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.28 in modern English

Syllables: more often than not
IPA

24

Scrabble Score

16

Letters

1

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

adv

Usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.

Example Sentences

"Near-synonyms: commonly, frequently; usually; see also Thesaurus:usually"
"More often than not, tomato seeds will sprout even if they are a couple of years old."
"Regular passengers become familiar with their train and attempts to change its make-up or any other aspect of its working are more often than not frowned upon, even though the change is probably for the better."
"he would gather his courage and set out between the columned arches to ask one of the unaccompanied women to partner him. More often than not, their answer was no."

Etymology

Origin obscure. Semantically equivalent to, and often understood as, an ellipsis of more often than not so. Possibly sometimes understood as more often than zero (see nought and naught), especially in reference to scales or gauges where mark zero represents the midpoint of measurement or frequency.

Inflected Forms

more often than naught (alternative) more often than nought (alternative)

Frequently Paired Words

as often as not

Synonyms

most of the time commonly frequently usually as a rule conventionally customarily in general generally habitually nine times out of ten normally

Questions

What does more often than not mean?: Usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
Where does more often than not come from?: Origin obscure. Semantically equivalent to, and often understood as, an ellipsis of more often than not so. Possibly sometimes understood as more often than zero (see nought and naught), especially in reference to scales or gauges where mark zero represents the midpoint of measurement or frequency.

How to pronounce more often than not

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