adv · name · noun · 4 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.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
General-American:/ɔft/
General-American:ôft
cot-caught-merger:/ɑft/
cot-caught-merger:ŏft
Received-Pronunciation:/ɒft/
Received-Pronunciation:ŏft
rhymes with -ɒft
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
homophone: offed
CMU ARPABET:AO1 F T
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
adv
Meaning 1
often; frequently; not rarely
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal, in-compounds, poetic
Examples
An oft-told tale
1819, George Gordon Byron, John Galt (biography), The Pophecy of Dante, Canto the Fourth, 1857, The Complete Works of Lord Byron, Volume 1, page 403, And how is it that they, the sons of fame, Whose inspiration seems to them to shine From high, they whom the nations oftest name, Must pass their days in penury or pain, Or step to grandeur through the paths of shame, And wear a deeper brand and gaudier chain?
1902, James H. Mulligan, In Kentucky, quoted in 2005, Wade Hall (editor), The Kentucky Anthology, page 203, The moonlight falls the softest In Kentucky; The summer days come oftest In Kentucky;
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
name
Meaning 2
Initialism of Office of Fair Trading.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Initialism of orbital flight test.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: OTF
Antonyms: none provided
4
adverb
Meaning 4
many times at short intervals
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
we often met over a cup of coffee
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: frequently, often, oftentimes, ofttimes
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From Middle English oft (also ofte, often > Modern English often), from Old English oft (“often”), from Proto-West Germanic *oftu, *oftō, from Proto-Germanic *uftō (“often”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian oafte (“oft, often”), West Frisian oft, ofte (“oft, often”), Dutch oft (“oft, often”), German oft (“oft, often”). More at often.
Across languages
Translations
6 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Bulgarian:
често
(često)
— often; frequently; not rarely; many times
Czech:
často
— often; frequently; not rarely; many times
French:
souvent
— often; frequently; not rarely; many times
Georgian:
ხშირად
(xširad)
— often; frequently; not rarely; many times
Russian:
часто
(často)
— often; frequently; not rarely; many times
Yiddish:
אַ סך מאָל
(a sakh mol)
— often; frequently; not rarely; many times
