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
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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
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Recent Examples of on and off
Wcco Staff, CBS News, 3 May 2026
Patterson played a diner owner named Luke, the on-and-off love interest of Lauren Graham's Lorelai Gilmore, in the fictional Stars Hollow.
—Meredith Wilshere, PEOPLE, 3 May 2026
After a week of some on-and-off weather with wind chills and chance showers in the Philadelphia area, the weekend is supposed to be the same story — at least for the first half.
—Kaitlyn McCormick, USA Today, 1 May 2026
Brown frames the memoir with an investigation of her complicated on-and-off relationship with her narcissist mother until their eventual rupture, and weaves in dozens of interviews and research.
—Literary Hub, 28 Apr. 2026
Apple’s software is also the source of on-and-off griping, with last year’s Liquid Glass redesign occasioning some particularly harsh criticism.
—ArsTechnica, 24 Apr. 2026
Previously, Batula was married to Wilson’s friend, Kyle Cooke, and Wilson had a on-and-off relationship with Batula’s best friend, Ciara Miller.
—William Earl, Variety, 24 Apr. 2026
Ice Cream and Reebok have had an on-and-off-again relationship since christening it with the Flavour sneaker in 2004.
—Ian Servantes, Footwear News, 15 Apr. 2026
The two men communicated via text messages, on-and-off, for about 18 months.
—Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
Housley's mother, Pamela Lazor, told WCCO her son went to school with Nietz and had been on-and-off friends for years.
—Wcco Staff, CBS News, 3 May 2026
Patterson played a diner owner named Luke, the on-and-off love interest of Lauren Graham's Lorelai Gilmore, in the fictional Stars Hollow.
—Meredith Wilshere, PEOPLE, 3 May 2026
After a week of some on-and-off weather with wind chills and chance showers in the Philadelphia area, the weekend is supposed to be the same story — at least for the first half.
—Kaitlyn McCormick, USA Today, 1 May 2026
Brown frames the memoir with an investigation of her complicated on-and-off relationship with her narcissist mother until their eventual rupture, and weaves in dozens of interviews and research.
—Literary Hub, 28 Apr. 2026
Apple’s software is also the source of on-and-off griping, with last year’s Liquid Glass redesign occasioning some particularly harsh criticism.
—ArsTechnica, 24 Apr. 2026
Previously, Batula was married to Wilson’s friend, Kyle Cooke, and Wilson had a on-and-off relationship with Batula’s best friend, Ciara Miller.
—William Earl, Variety, 24 Apr. 2026
Ice Cream and Reebok have had an on-and-off-again relationship since christening it with the Flavour sneaker in 2004.
—Ian Servantes, Footwear News, 15 Apr. 2026
The two men communicated via text messages, on-and-off, for about 18 months.
—Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for on and off
Adverb
-
To toggle your new pet off and on, type /pet into the composer, then use Wake Pet or Tuck Away Pet in Settings > Appearance.—
Will McCurdy,
PC Magazine,
3 May 2026
-
Dosunmu is out with a right calf injury, an issue that has plagued him off and on for several weeks.—
Jon Krawczynski,
New York Times,
1 May 2026
Adjective
-
Wangchuk regularly flies to Bangkok for recurrent training and proficiency checks.—
Chris Dong,
Travel + Leisure,
12 May 2026
-
Vaginal ring Localized estrogen delivered through a vaginal ring can help women who struggle with vaginal dryness or recurrent urinary tract infections, but a vaginal ring can also deliver systemic estrogen, Streicher said.—
Kaitlin Sullivan,
NBC news,
10 May 2026
Adverb
-
Southern magnolias, the glossy evergreen trees common across the South, usually bloom later in spring and continue producing flowers sporadically into summer.—
Jessica Safavimehr,
Southern Living,
13 May 2026
-
The hostilities have continued sporadically despite a month-old ceasefire, especially in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.—
Jim Gomez,
Los Angeles Times,
8 May 2026
Adjective
-
The Bell Street Bridge encampment was prioritized for closure as part of Downtown Rising – the first phase of Atlanta Rising, a multi-year campaign launched in 2025 to end unsheltered homelessness citywide and make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.—
Emily McLeod,
CBS News,
7 Mar. 2026
-
This was and is a non-recurring, cyclical business totally dependent on transaction volumes, which fluctuate with economic cycles and interest rates.—
Josh Brown,Sean Russo,
CNBC,
15 Jan. 2026
Adverb
-
Traffic will be paused intermittently along FM 1709 between Randol Mill/Davis Boulevard and Peytonville.—
Fousia Abdullahi,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
9 May 2026
-
During the nearly two decades since that meeting with carpet executives in 2008, Georgia regulators intermittently tested the waters south of Dalton, confirming time and again the extensive contamination.—
DYLAN JACKSON,
ABC News,
6 May 2026
Adjective
-
The periodic transaction report the Office of Government Ethics released on May 14 documents 3,642 individual trades made through the account in the first three months of 2026—between $220 million and $750 million in volume at a pace of roughly 60 trades per day.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
16 May 2026
-
When that becomes the focus, conversations between government and providers shift from periodic check-ins to more useful, ongoing course correction grounded in real feedback.—
Caroline Whistler,
Forbes.com,
15 May 2026
Adverb
-
Ouija boards were enshrined in glass cases throughout the room; periodically, a small silver bell tolled without warning, moving as though on its own.—
Alex Barasch,
New Yorker,
11 May 2026
-
The idea of including the Stars has periodically been floated at the state Capitol over the past couple of years, aligned with the Democrats’ theme of bringing equity to any stadium-building conversation.—
Jeremy Gorner,
Chicago Tribune,
11 May 2026
Adjective
-
According to Costigan and McIntyre, one 4-hour USB-charge should be good for seven to eight hours of runtime in high-intensity intermittent mode, or approximately 14 hours in the lowest-intensity steady output mode.—
Ben Coxworth
May 15,
New Atlas,
15 May 2026
-
But 2026 has marked a new nadir for one of the world’s oldest civilizations, with the government’s massacre of anti-regime protestors in January and widespread destruction from the United States’ and Israel’s intermittent war.—
Andrew Gilbert,
Mercury News,
13 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“On and off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/on%20and%20off. Accessed 16 May. 2026.
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