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adverb British English pronunciation: often /ˈɒf(ə)n/
  1. 1
    on many occasions, or in many situations

    Often, students with family problems have difficulties at school.

    Boredom often leads to poor behaviour.

    The home is often the most likely place to have an accident.

    fairly/quite often:

    I’ve found that it’s quite often impossible to park in town.

    very often:

    Very often it turns out that the student hasn’t understood the question.

    often enough (=on enough occasions to achieve a particular result):

    I’ve already told you not to argue often enough.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  oftenThesaurus entry for this meaning of often
  2. 2
    used for talking about how many times something happens in a particular period of time

    I’ve been swimming twice as often as I did last year.

    how often?:

    How often do you eat meat?

    fairly/quite often:

    I go to the gym quite often.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of  oftenThesaurus entry for this meaning of often

phrases

This is the British English definition of often. View American English definition of often.

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