oft

O1F4T1
US/ɔft/cot caught merger/ɑft/UK/ɒft/

adverb

often; frequently; not rarely

“An oft-told tale”

Less commonScrabble 6

Meanings

oft1

adverboft (comparative ofter, superlative oftest)

comparative ofter · superlative oftest

  1. dialectalin compoundspoeticoften; frequently; not rarely

    An oft-told tale

    4 more examples

    What I can do, can do no hurt to try: Since you ſet up your reſt 'gainſt remedy: He that of greateſt works is finiſher, Oft does them by the weakeſt miniſter; So holy writ in babes hath judgment ſhown, When judges have been babes.

    c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

    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;

    Now, the English-language Wikipedia does make an attempt to document knowledge of the whole world, not just the English-speaking world. At the same time, it admits in its own oft-cited “essays” that it has a pro-Western “systemic bias”; this is borne out by studies cited in the Wikipedia article about itself.

    2025 September 30, Larry Sanger, “4. Revive the original neutrality policy.”, in larrysanger.org

OFT2

proper noun
  1. UKabbreviationinitialismInitialism of Office of Fair Trading.
nounOFT (plural OFTs)

plural OFTs

  1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of orbital flight test.

    Synonyms: OTF

Synonyms & antonyms

More synonyms by meaning

adverbmany times at short intervals

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*uftō“often”
  2. Proto-West Germanic*oftu
  3. Old Englishoft“often”
  4. Middle Englishoft
  5. Englishoft

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.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian често
  • често (često)often; frequently; not rarely; many times
Czech často
  • častooften; frequently; not rarely; many times
French souvent
  • souventoften; frequently; not rarely; many times
Russian часто
  • часто (často)often; frequently; not rarely; many times
Yiddish אַ סך מאָל
  • אַ סך מאָל (a sakh mol)often; frequently; not rarely; many times

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with oft

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Sounds the same

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

oft. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oft

MLA

“oft.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oft. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “oft,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oft.

Source: oft on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.