once in a while
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Occurring occasionally or infrequently
Literally: one time in a period of time
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
You really ought to give the place a going - over with the Hoover once in a while.’
If you are the guest, then you can take refuge in the thought that once in a while you need a break, and you can always make it up tomorrow by being particularly good.
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. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “once in a while” mean?
Occurring occasionally or infrequently Literally: one time in a period of time
Is “once in a while” 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?
“có khi” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.