occasional
oc·ca·sion·al/əˈkeɪʒ(ə)nəl/adjective, noun
occasional is spelled O-C-C-A-S-I-O-N-A-L, 4 syllables: oc·ca·sion·al. The wrong spelling people search most is occassional: about 360 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Occasional is an adjective meaning “Occurring or appearing irregularly from time to time, but not often; incidental”.
How many letters and syllables are in occasional?
| Letters | 10: O-C-C-A-S-I-O-N-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: oc·ca·sion·al |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 5,878th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, occassional, about 360 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell occasional?
Occasional is spelled O-C-C-A-S-I-O-N-A-L. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for occasional in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is occasional?
Occasional appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,878th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce occasional?
- /əˈkeɪʒ(ə)nəl/
Occasional has 4 syllables, split oc·ca·sion·al in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-occasional.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of occasional
- more occasional comparative
- most occasional superlative
- occasionals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does occasional mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Occurring or appearing irregularly from time to time, but not often; incidental.
He was mostly solitary, but enjoyed the occasional visitor.
- 2
Created for a specific occasion.
Elgar's music was not created to be occasional music for high-school graduations.
- 3
Intended for use as the occasion requires.
What your living room needs are some occasional chairs.
- 4
Acting in the indicated role from time to time.
He is an occasional writer of letters to the editor.
noun
- 1
A person who does something only occasionally.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Occasional in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense limited to certain occasions; not very often:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | occasionnel |
| German | gelegentlich, okkasionell |
| Portuguese | ocasional |
| Spanish | ocasional, esporádico |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does occasional come from?
From Middle English occasyonal, from Medieval Latin occāsiōnālis and Old French ocasionel. By surface analysis, occasion + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).