more often than not
Usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the caseUsually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
» When it rains, the buses are late more often than not.
Коли йде дощ, автобуси переважно запізнюються. — deniko
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(comparative only, idiomatic)Usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
Near-synonyms: commonly, frequently; usually; see also Thesaurus:usually
More often than not, tomato seeds will sprout even if they are a couple of years old.
- usually; as a rule
Examples
58 sentencesWhen it rains, the buses are late more often than not.
Коли йде дощ, автобуси переважно запізнюються. — deniko
They aren't children any more, but not adults yet.
ruОни уже не дети, но ещё и не взрослые. — marafon
deSie sind keine Kinder mehr, aber noch nicht erwachsen. — samueldora
More often than not, people do it this way.
Tom will more likely not want to do that.
Tom should be more careful not to bother Mary while she's working.
ruТому следует быть осторожнее, чтобы не беспокоить Мэри, пока она работает. — AntonKhorev
deTom sollte mehr darauf achthaben, Maria nicht bei der Arbeit zu stören. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
Translations
2 languagesOrigin
Origin obscure. Semantically equivalent to, and often understood as, an ellipsis of more oOrigin obscure. Semantically equivalent to, and often understood as, an ellipsis of more often than not so. Possibly sometimes understood as more often than zero (see nought and naught), especially in reference to scales or gauges where mark zero represents the midpoint of measurement or frequency.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.