How to spell seldom

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. Often misspelled as seldomly or selldom.

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.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

psalm · moisten · balance · account · object · everyone · gnaw · cleopatra

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.