Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - often

~ adv 1 if something happens often, or you do something often, it happens regularly or many times  (Rosi often works till 7 or 8 o'clock in the evening. | If you wash your hair too often, it tends to make it greasy. | how often?)  (How often do you go to the movies? | very/quite often)  (Tom quite often goes to his Mum's on Saturday for tea. | not often)  (It's not often that you meet people who are so willing to help.) 2 sentence adverb if something happens often, it happens in many situations or cases  (It's often difficult to translate poetry. | very/quite often)  (Very often you find that children with behavioral problems come from broken homes.) 3 all too often also only too often used to say that something sad, disappointing, or annoying happens too much  (All too often victims of bullying are too frightened to ask for help. | These loopholes in the tax laws are exploited only too often.) 4 every so often sometimes  (An inspector would come round every so often to check the premises.) 5 as often as not also more often than not spoken usually  (More often than not he'll come and apologize within minutes of shouting at us.)