Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell seldom

Seldom is spelled S-E-L-D-O-M.

hear itsel·dom/'sɛldəm/adverbSilent and tricky

What it means: Not often; infrequently.

In a sentence: The sun seldom shines on rainy days.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear.

Same family: rarely, infrequently, hardly-ever, occasionally, almost-never. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Seldom” comes from Old English *seldan*, meaning “rarely,” and is related to an old word for “strange” or “unusual.” It’s one of the few English adverbs that does not normally take the -ly ending, which is why “seldomly” is considered nonstandard.

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