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Rarely vs Seldomly - What's the difference?

rarely | seldomly |

As adverbs the difference between rarely and seldomly

is that rarely is not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often while seldomly is (rare|sometimes|proscribed) seldom; rarely.

rarely

English

Adverb

(en adverb)
  • Not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often.
    • We rarely go to the theatre.
    Rarely do you ever find an eagle this far up the river.
  • Unusually well; excellently.
  • To a rare degree; very.
  • *, II.32:
    • others speake very honourably of his life and death, and in all other circumstances declare him to have beene a most excellent and rarely virtuous man.

    Usage notes

    It is grammatically a negative word. It therefore collocates with ever rather than never. * Compare We rarely ever go to the theatre.'' with ''We almost never go to the theatre.

    Synonyms

    * barely * hardly * infrequently * once in a while * seldom * sporadically * scarcely

    Antonyms

    * frequently, usually, often

    References

    * * English frequency adverbs

    seldomly

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (rare, sometimes, proscribed) Seldom; rarely.
  • * 1864 , Ellen L. Biscoe Hollis, The Winthrops , page 265:
    • the universally felt, yet seldomly acknowledged truth […].
  • * (Emily Dickinson), ‘So set its sun in thee’, Poems :
  • *:So I the ships may see / That touch how seldomly / Thy shore?
  • *1999 , (Philip Greenspun), Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing :
  • *:Very seldomly will you need to store email addresses or names that are anywhere near as long as 100 characters.
  • *2011 , , The Reliability of the New Testament , p. 132:
  • *:Additionally, orthographic variants only very seldomly affect the text itself.

    • Usage notes

    * Sometimes proscribed in favor of the more common seldom, itself an adverb. * At COCA seldom'' occurs more than 5,000 times; ''seldomly 12. It is even rarer in the BNC.