Phrase guide

few and far between

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

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Pronunciation

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1

adj

Meaning 1

Rare and scarce; hard to find.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: thin on the ground, deficient, in short supply, wanting, lacking, uncommon, rare, dearthy, few and far between, geason, infrequent, raresome, scant, scantling, scarce, selcouth, seld, seldom, selly, superrare, unfrequent

Antonyms: far and wide, thick on the ground, common, widespread, abundant, ubiquitous

History

Etymology

Attested at least since the 17th century. Was originally reserved for physical objects, such as houses, appearing with wide gaps between, but today it is also applied to more abstract things. Being rare also implies that the average gaps between the objects are wide.

Across languages

Translations

5 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 少之又少 (shǎozhīyòushǎo) — rare and scarce
  • Finnish: harvassa — rare and scarce
  • Georgian: აქა-იქ (aka-ik) — rare and scarce
  • Icelandic: fáir og strjálir — rare and scarce
  • Polish: rzadki — rare and scarce