rarely

From rare + -ly.

• enPR: râr'li
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛːli/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛəɹli/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (MLE) IPA^(key): /ɹɛli/
• (New Zealand)
  • IPA^(key): /ɹeə.liː/
    • Homophone: really
  • IPA^(key): /ɹeəɹliː/ (to distinguish from really)
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈrɛjə(r)li/, /ˈra(r)li/, (rhotic) /rerli/
  • (for some non-rhotic speakers) Homophone: rally
• Hyphenation: rare‧ly
• Rhymes: (UK) -ɛːli, (US) -ɛəɹli

rarely (comparative rarelier or more rarely, superlative rareliest or most rarely)

1. Not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:rarely

   We rarely go to the theatre.

   Rarely do you ever find an eagle this far up the river.

   • 2019 December 31, AJ Willingham, “All the trends we loved and hated in the 2010s”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     You have to give them credit, rarely does a character appeal equally to four-year-old children and middle-aged aunts posting tepid jokes and fake Oscar Wilde quotes on their timelines.

2. Unusually well; excellently. [from 16th c.]

   After all the schooling, I can finally write rarely now.

3. To a rare degree; very. [from 16th c.]

   I became a rarely good judge of the best in modern painting.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 32, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     others speake very honourably of his life and death, and in all other circumstances declare him to have beene a most excellent and rarely virtuous man.

It is grammatically a negative word. It therefore collocates with ever rather than never.

• Compare We rarely ever go to the theatre. with We almost never go to the theatre.

• barely
• hardly
• infrequently
• once in a while
• seldom
• sporadically
• scarcely
• Thesaurus:rarely

• frequently, usually, often

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “rarely”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “rarely”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• rearly