English · Idiom Attested

few and far between

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Scarce or infrequent.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

hiếm hoi hoặc không thường xuyên

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

and just relaxing and erm in any case as I say er guide dogs were few and far between at that time

Goals are few and far between.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent lơ thơ (adjective) few and far between Tiếng Việt Near equivalent lưa thưa (adjective) few and far between; sparse Tiếng Việt

Common questions

What does “few and far between” mean?

Scarce or infrequent.

Is “few and far between” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“lơ thơ” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.