as in off and on
not constantly or steadily over a period of time
It's been raining on and off all afternoon.
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
as in recurrent
occurring or appearing at intervals
an on-and-off friendship over the years
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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.
Recent Examples of on and off
Kimi Robinson, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2025
Tran dated Chris Brown in an on-and-off relationship from 2011 to 2015, and was previously linked to Rob Kardashian.
—Angel Saunders, People.com, 29 Aug. 2025
The experience reminded me of a part from Happy Together, a Wong Kar-wai movie about a deeply fraught, on-and-off romantic relationship between two men.
—Tao Lin, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
That lane was impacted not just by the on-and-off tariffs starting in April, but also the closure of the de minimis trade exemption for Chinese goods on May 2.
—Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 14 Aug. 2025
Rocky’s creative ambitions left a lasting impression on his younger castmate Elijah Wright, son of Jeffrey Wright, both on-and-off the call sheet.
—Antonio Ferme, Variety, 13 Aug. 2025
In the Arrowverse, Haynes plays Roy Harper (Arsenal), a vigilante who is inspired by Oliver Queen and is involved in an on-and-off relationship with Thea Queen.
—Armando Tinoco, Deadline, 12 Aug. 2025
Adjective
The on-and-off couple welcomed their first child, Saga Blade Fox-Baker, in March.
—Kimi Robinson, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2025
Tran dated Chris Brown in an on-and-off relationship from 2011 to 2015, and was previously linked to Rob Kardashian.
—Angel Saunders, People.com, 29 Aug. 2025
The experience reminded me of a part from Happy Together, a Wong Kar-wai movie about a deeply fraught, on-and-off romantic relationship between two men.
—Tao Lin, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
That lane was impacted not just by the on-and-off tariffs starting in April, but also the closure of the de minimis trade exemption for Chinese goods on May 2.
—Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 14 Aug. 2025
Rocky’s creative ambitions left a lasting impression on his younger castmate Elijah Wright, son of Jeffrey Wright, both on-and-off the call sheet.
—Antonio Ferme, Variety, 13 Aug. 2025
In the Arrowverse, Haynes plays Roy Harper (Arsenal), a vigilante who is inspired by Oliver Queen and is involved in an on-and-off relationship with Thea Queen.
—Armando Tinoco, Deadline, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for on and off
Adverb
-
But its replacement, which happened to be the only spare at the time, worked perfectly for six weeks and then off and on for several more years.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
28 Aug. 2025
-
Ray has been with me for 12 years off and on.—
Demetrius Patterson,
HollywoodReporter,
28 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The results showed no significant differences between the two groups in rates of death, recurrent heart attack or hospitalization for heart failure.—
Hannah Millington,
MSNBC Newsweek,
2 Sep. 2025
-
Using advanced recurrent networks, researchers mapped inner speech into recognizable words, hitting conversational-level performance.—
Jason Snyder,
Forbes.com,
31 Aug. 2025
Adverb
-
Sheen has since laid low, and claims to be sober and to have straightened his life out — even appearing sporadically in film and TV roles.—
Oren Peleg,
HollywoodReporter,
9 Sep. 2025
-
The group has reunited only sporadically since then, including notably for the 2007 Celebration Day concert in London, but a full reunion never materialized.—
Hugh McIntyre,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Audiences can also expect a new teacher, Luke Tennie’s Dominic, and potentially more recurring and guest characters.—
Natalie Oganesyan,
Deadline,
6 Sep. 2025
-
This should further increase the bank's base of more recurring revenue streams.—
Lisa Kailai Han,
CNBC,
27 Aug. 2025
Adverb
-
Mating season is February to April, and females will lay one or two eggs per day intermittently during that period.—
Ashley Mackin Solomon,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 Sep. 2025
-
For some, the pause is only temporary because their Starlink dish is used intermittently for RV or camping trips.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
By contrast, an investment product with private asset exposure designed for workplace retirement plans may have somewhat lower costs and let investors put money in regularly as well as make periodic withdrawals during the year.—
Jeanne Sahadi,
CNN Money,
12 Sep. 2025
-
The state is a non-equilibrium quantum state of matter in a system driven by a time-periodic Hamiltonian, which is a physical system whose governing rules change over time, but with a repeating, predictable cycle.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
11 Sep. 2025
Adverb
-
The shows are also spot-checked periodically.—
Caitlin Huston,
HollywoodReporter,
9 Sep. 2025
-
Openings will continually periodically through until 2026, where once finished – 12 houses will be available.—
Mia Taylor,
Boston Herald,
7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
In some cases, this even results in no weight loss during intermittent fasting, and instead to muscle loss and fat buildup.—
Frederik Jötten,
Scientific American,
12 Sep. 2025
-
What's more, intermittent fasting (which has been shown to alleviate some symptoms of Alzheimer's disease), following a period of eating a high-fat diet was also enough of an intervention to restore normal activity to the CCK interneurons.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
11 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“On and off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/on%20and%20off. Accessed 15 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share