frequently
Americanadverb
Synonym Usage
See often.
Etymology
Origin of frequently
Explanation
If you do something frequently, you do it repeatedly, again and again. If you frequently visit the cookie jar, you might gain some unwanted pounds. Doctors and nurses have to wash their hands frequently, many times each day, since they touch various patients and don't want to spread germs. When you're driving in rush hour traffic, you usually find yourself stopping frequently. Things that occur over and over, especially in a relatively short time frame, happen frequently. The adverb frequently comes from the adjective frequent, which originally meant "profuse or ample," from the Latin root frequentem, "crowded or repeated."
Vocabulary lists containing frequently
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She said that during legal service consultations, commissary pricing frequently comes up.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 1, 2026
The beauty of this show is that Waters and his producers focused on history’s unsung heroes or the lesser-known feats of famous ones with an infectious, besotted revelry that frequently inspired further research.
From Salon • Jul. 1, 2026
AI models like ChatGPT frequently use your data to train their future models unless you explicitly tell it not to.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 1, 2026
In American history, character is frequently regarded as a personality trait, an admirable but secondary factor in achieving results.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 30, 2026
During the next 6,500 years there were remarkable technological advances—the invention of the water-wheel and the windmill, for example—but until 400 years ago technological change was slow, and it was frequently reversed.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
