Occasional
//əˈkeɪʒ(ə)nəl// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person who does something only occasionally.
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."
Adjective
- 1 recurring or reappearing from time to time wordnet
- 2 occurring from time to time wordnet
- 3 occurring or appearing at usually irregular intervals wordnet
- 4 occurring on a temporary or irregular basis wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I have occasional pains in the stomach."
Etymology
From Middle English occasyonal, from Medieval Latin occāsiōnālis and Old French ocasionel. By surface analysis, occasion + -al.
Related phrases
More for "occasional"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.