oft
/ɔft/adverb
oft is spelled O-F-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adverb, oft means “often; frequently; not rarely” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in oft?
| Letters | 3: O-F-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,906th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is oft?
Oft appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th 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 oft?
- US /ɔft/
- /ɑft/
- UK /ɒft/
Oft has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-oft.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with oft?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as oft from its last stressed vowel (/ɔft/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of oft
- ofter comparative
- oftest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does oft mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
often; frequently; not rarely
An oft-told tale
noun
- 1
Initialism of orbital flight test.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Oft in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense often; frequently; not rarely; many times:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | souvent |
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 oft come from?
From Middle English oft (also ofte, often > Modern English often), from Old English oft (“often”), from Proto-West Germanic *oftu, *oftō, from Proto-Germanic *uftō (“often”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian oafte (“oft, often”), West Frisian oft, ofte (“oft, often”), Dutch oft (“oft, often”), German oft (“oft, often”). More at often.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).