adverb phrase🎓 English idiom

now and then

occasionally, from time to time

What it means

Now and then describes something that happens occasionally — not often, but not rarely either. It's a soft, casual way to indicate an irregular but recurring frequency, similar to 'every so often'.

Examples

  • We still meet up for coffee now and then.
  • Now and then I think about going back to school.
  • She checks in with her old colleagues now and then.
  • It rains now and then in the desert, but never for long.

Where it comes from

A traditional English binomial dating to at least the 1500s, pairing two adverbs of time to express irregular recurrence — literally 'at this moment and at some other moment'.

Related idioms

#by and large#ups and downs#back and forth#give and take

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