occasional
Americanadjective
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occurring or appearing at irregular or infrequent intervals; occurring now and then.
an occasional headache.
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intended for supplementary use when needed.
an occasional chair.
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pertaining to, arising out of, or intended for the occasion.
occasional verses.
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acting or serving for the occasion or only on particular occasions.
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serving as the occasion or incidental cause.
adjective
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taking place from time to time; not frequent or regular
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of, for, or happening on special occasions
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serving as an occasion (for something)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of occasional
Explanation
When something happens from time to time on an irregular basis, we say it is an occasional occurrence. For example, you might have an occasional lunch with a friend. If your friend ever picked up the bill, maybe it would happen more often. Occasional is a few steps removed from the Latin cadere, "to fall." So you might think of something occasional as something that happens "to fall" just whenever it happens to fall. Speaking of falling, Voltaire once wrote, "The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination." An occasional election might do in a pinch.
Vocabulary lists containing occasional
The Cay
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Bridge to Terabithia
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
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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.
"Occasional individuals moving between distant breeding grounds can help maintain genetic diversity across populations," she added.
From Barron's • May 20, 2026
Occasional weird inventions are folded in: a “hambulance” delivering ham; food trucks selling potato ice cream and soup on a stick; something called Pacifier Shirt Syndrome, caused by rubbing a dropped pacifier on a short.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 22, 2025
Occasional bursts of very warm weather are not unusual in spring but scientists expect that spring heat will become more common in future.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2025
Occasional glitches — a mispronounced word, a missing intonation — were mostly imperceptible.
From Seattle Times • May 13, 2024
Occasional mutant individuals among wild plants lacked thick seed coats or other inhibitors of germination.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
