of course

Idioms  

1. In the customary or expected order, naturally, as in The new minister did not, of course, fire the church secretary . This usage, first recorded in 1548, employs course in the sense of “ordinary procedure.”

2. Certainly, as in Of course I'll answer the phone , or Are you going to the meeting?—Of course . [Early 1800s] Also see matter of course .

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Example Sentences

Some Americans are being hit hard, of course, particularly middle- and lower-income Americans and anyone who needs to drive long distances for work.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 17, 2026

And of course, stop for a slice of sachertorte.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

They said: "He can't do it like other children his age, of course, but we can no longer describe what he does in any other way than by saying it's running, jumping, and swimming."

From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026

Each process, of course, also takes time, during which developers pay additional holding costs on predevelopment loans, all the while inflation pushes up the cost of materials and wages.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026

I remember it was a kind of collage, full of cutout pictures of circus life, with clowns and acrobats and jugglers and horses, and elephants, of course, lots of elephants.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo