AdverbEmployers also say that foreign-born workers tend to work harder, be more reliable, and complain less than the natives they can hire at the same wage. This is not surprising. Unskilled immigrants have seldom finished secondary school, but they have overcome all kinds of obstacles both to get here and to stay here.—Christopher Jencks, New York Review of Books, 27 Sept. 2007"The pervasive theme is rebellion." Laurel Thatcher Ulrich begins her new book, "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History," struggling to explain—understand—the appeal of an aside she made in the spring 1976 issue of an academic journal, a comment that has become a popular slogan printed on T-shirts and coffee mugs and bumper stickers, usually without her permission and often without attribution.—Kathryn Harrison, New York Times Book Review, 30 Sept. 2007Kangaroo rats belong to a North American family of rodents well known for living in arid habitats, where they forage almost exclusively for seeds. They seldom have access to drinking water, but instead get most of their moisture from digesting the seeds.—Michael A. Mares, Natural History, November 2003
We seldom go to the movies.
This type of turtle seldom grows over four inches in length.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Adverb
The dispatch Speeches from 80-year old politicians who last served in government more than a quarter of a century ago seldom have an impact.—Ian King, CNBC, 22 Apr. 2026 He was seldom used, stuck behind Jaylen Warren and Kenny Gainwell in 2025.—Michael Guise, CBS News, 21 Apr. 2026 Mohr uses these more in-the-red tracks as the opportunity to unleash bellowing vocal delivery that she’s seldom explored before.—Colin Joyce, Pitchfork, 21 Apr. 2026 Drawing on these accounts, Thomas published some of the first books that explored the Japanese experience of the war at a time when the subject was seldom discussed, including in the Japanese American community.—Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for seldom
Word History
Etymology
Adverb and Adjective
Middle English, from Old English seldan; akin to Old High German seltan seldom
First Known Use
Adverb
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above