now and again
"now-and-again" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“now and again” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of occasionally, sometimes, intermittently.
Corpus desk
Index EN-now-and-again · now and again · English
now and again · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | now and again |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “now and again” in English
Rare enough to double-check
now and again is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of occasionally, sometimes, intermittently.".
now and again doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is now and again, spelled N-O-W- -A-N-D- -A-G-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Synonym of occasionally, sometimes, intermittently.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how now and again appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I still go swimming now and again, but not as often as when I was a child.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.