more often than not
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more often than not
Where it comes from
Origin obscure. Semantically equivalent to, and often understood as, an ellipsis of more often than not so. Possibly sometimes understood as more often than zero (see nought and naught), especially in reference to scales or gauges where mark zero represents the midpoint of measurement or frequency.
adverb more often than naught · more often than nought
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Usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
Near-synonyms: commonly, frequently; usually; see also Thesaurus:usually
Similar: most of the time, commonly, frequently, usually, as a rule, conventionally, customarily, in general, generally, habitually, nine times out of ten, normally
Translations
Every language
adv more likely to be the case than not
| 日本語 | たいてい taitei |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 通常 tōngcháng, 大多 dàduō |
| Français | le plus souvent |
| Ελληνικά | τις περισσότερες φορές tis perissóteres forés |
Talk about this word "more often than not." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/more%20often%20than%20not. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. more often than not. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/more%20often%20than%20not "more often than not." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/more%20often%20than%20not.Cite this
@misc{more_often_than_not_2026,
title = {more often than not},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/more%20often%20than%20not},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
