oftimes
An archaic or literary adverb meaning 'often' or 'frequently'.
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An archaic or literary adverb meaning 'often' or 'frequently'. Oftimes has the feel of old-fashioned formal writing — the kind of word you'd find in a 19th-century novel or a poetic passage. In contemporary usage it's almost exclusively ironic or deliberately archaic, dropped into speech or writing to create a mock-serious or elevated tone. It's rarely used straight-faced, which is part of its charm.
He would oftimes stare out the window mid-meeting, clearly somewhere else entirely.
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(chiefly, US, uncommon) (elsewhere, archaic) .
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- oft-times86%
An archaic or literary adverb meaning 'often' or 'many times' — now only encountered in deliberately formal, poetic, or old-fashioned writing. In contemporary American English it occasionally appears in rhetorical or elevated prose, though it reads as self-consciously archaic. Elsewhere it is purely historical. Essentially interchangeable with 'often' but carrying a different register.
- ofttimes82%
(chiefly, US, uncommon) (elsewhere, archaic) Often, frequently.
- oftentimes77%
(chiefly, US, elsewhere, _, archaic) Frequently; often.
- oftentime70%
(chiefly, US, rare) (elsewhere, archaic) .