Dictionary

as often as not en · ADP

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) More or less half of the time; on many occasions but not always; frequently.
   • "I am a man that tries to do his duty, and makes a mess of it as often as not." 1896, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Persons of the Tale”, in Fables:
   • As often as not, the perpetrators have been other Americans — motivated not by patriotism for a foreign flag, but by simple profit. 2012 October 24, Eamon Javers, “Spies and Co.”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 Oct 2013:
   • "[T]hese old people—there's no trusting them, Fred. . . . [Y]ou can't calculate upon 'em, and even then they deceive you just as often as not." 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in The Old Curiosity Shop:
   • [I]f he discovered a sale where there were books he would as often as not waste half the next day in going again to acquire a job lot of them. 1910, H. G. Wells, chapter 7, in The History of Mr. Polly:
   • The hall porter said that, as often as not, the flat was untenanted. 1918, Edgar Wallace, chapter 7, in The Man Who Knew:

Coordinates

more often than not

Relateds

even chances · as likely as not · fifty-fifty