Meanings
oft1
comparative ofter · superlative oftest
- 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
- UKabbreviationinitialismInitialism of Office of Fair Trading.
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
adverbmany times at short intervals
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*uftō“often”
- Proto-West Germanic*oftu
- Old Englishoft“often”
- Middle Englishoft
- 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.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
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
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
oft. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oft
“oft.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oft. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “oft,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oft.
Source: oft on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.