once in a while

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australia):

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Adverb

once in a while (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Occasionally; sometimes.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:occasionally

   I send her a note once in a while to let her know I'm thinking of her.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 2:

     He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him.

   • 2003, Janice Daugharty, “You’re No Angel Yourself”, in Hugh Ruppersburg, editor, After O’Connor: Stories from Contemporary Georgia, Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, →ISBN, page 59:

     Now, the three stepgirls and their brother call once in a while, maybe drop by if they need a babysitter.

Synonyms

• every once in a while

Derived terms

• even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while
• even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while
• every once in a while

Translations

occasionally

• Azerbaijani: arabir (az)
• Bulgarian: понякога (bg) (ponjakoga), от време на време (ot vreme na vreme)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偶爾 / 偶尔 (zh) (ǒu'ěr), 隔三差五 (zh) (gésānchàwǔ)

• Danish: en gang imellem (da), indimellem
• Dutch: nu en dan (nl)
• Esperanto: de tempo al tempo
• Finnish: ajoittain (fi), silloin tällöin (fi)
• French: de temps en temps (fr)
• German: ab und zu (de)
• Greek: κάπου-κάπου (kápou-kápou), κάθε τόσο (káthe tóso), κατά διαστήματα (katá diastímata), πού και πού (el) (poú kai poú), μια (φορά) στο τόσο (mia (forá) sto tóso)
• Hungarian: nagy ritkán, nagy néha, időnként (hu), olykor (hu), olykor-olykor (hu), néha (hu), néha-néha (hu), hébe-hóba (hu)
• Italian: di tanto in tanto (it)
• Navajo: tʼóó náhodiʼnahgo
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: av og til (no), nå og da, i gang i mellom

• Ojibwe: wiikaa
• Plautdietsch: enjawiess
• Polish: raz na jakiś czas (pl)
• Portuguese: de vez em quando (pt)
• Russian: иногда́ (ru) (inogdá), вре́мя от вре́мени (ru) (vrémja ot vrémeni), поро́й (ru) (porój)
• Spanish: de vez en cuando (es)
• Swedish: då och då (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can

See also

• every now and then
• every so often
• from time to time
• now and again
• now and then
• sometimes