infrequentin‧fre‧quent /ɪnˈfriːkwənt/ adjective - As time went on, her visits became more and more infrequent.
- Cases of typhoid are relatively infrequent in Northern Europe.
- Rain is infrequent in this normally hot, dry region of the world.
- Roger's infrequent letters home did not reveal much about his personal life.
► rare not existing in large numbers or in large amounts: · The law prevents the export of rare birds.· The plates are quite rare. Only about a hundred were made.
► scarce not available in large enough numbers or amounts at a particular time – used especially about things people need: · After the war, food and clothing were scarce.· People are having to compete for scarce resources.
► not common [not before noun] fairly rare: · Silver coins of this period are not common, and could be very valuable.
► infrequent formal not happening often: · As time went on, her visits became more and more infrequent.
► be few and far between to not be common – especially much less common than you might expect: · Luckily, accidents such as these are few and far between.· Bargains are, unfortunately, few and far between.
► be (something of) a rarity if something or someone is a rarity, it is surprising to find one, because very few exist: · Women are still something of a rarity in senior management positions.
► be like hen’s teeth informal to be extremely rare: · Good Greek restaurants are like hen’s teeth around here.
not happening often► rare something that is rare does not happen often: · Snow is a rare sight here, except on the mountains.· On the rare occasions when we had to work hard, we enjoyed it.· In a rare moment of vanity, Carl removed his glasses.it is rare for somebody/something to do something: · It is very rare for anyone to actually die from bee stings in this country.
► uncommon/not common fairly rare: · Crimes against elderly people are still uncommon.· Her time in hospital had given her an empathy with her patients not common among physicians.it is uncommon to do something: · When I was young it was uncommon to see a man pushing a baby buggy.
► you don't often do something spoken if you say you don't often see something, find something etc, you mean this happens only very rarely: · You don't often find really good tropical fruit in this country.· We had over 200 replies. You don't often get such a good response from an advert.
► infrequent formal not happening often: · As time went on, her visits became more and more infrequent.· Cases of typhoid are relatively infrequent in Northern Europe.· Roger's infrequent letters home did not reveal much about his personal life.
ADVERB► relatively· It is a marked structure in the sense of being relatively infrequent.· In science and journalism, by contrast, conjunctions in general and causal conjunctions in particular are relatively infrequent.· On this view transput will be relatively infrequent, so that the cost of converting to and from decimal format is acceptable.
nounfrequency ≠ infrequencyadjectivefrequent ≠ infrequentverbfrequentadverbfrequently ≠ infrequently