time and again
47
1.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
una y otra vez
- I have explained this procedure time and again, but it seems people still do not understand.
- proved time and again
- repeated time and again
- shown time and again
It's because it's been told time and again by parents, by teachers, by counselors, you can't.
- It's because it's been told time and again by parents, by teachers, by counselors, you can't.
- It's a risky old strategy, but it has paid off for me time and again.
- Once I found out that this was out there, I fell upon it time and again.
- Ruprecht, reeling from total relentless war and searching for honor or even rules, tried to intervene time and again, but to no avail.
- Until I studied abroad in Madrid and had to answer time and again that same follow up question, where are you really from?
- So time and again, you see actually, you know, censorship is, is helpful to injustice.
- We are told time and again by the military that the commander is the solution to the problems facing people like Keith and the other survivors.
Examples
-
And yet, time and again, you were given warnings.
-
We came back time and again to the differences that mark us as Americans.
Academic text (2001) -
Do you know why this happens time and again?
-
Our best machines had failed time and again to complete a mission.
-
"I was trying to do my job," Roger's book reminds us time and again.
Academic text (2001) -
His people have learned time and again not to rely too heavily on Western promises of support, he said.
Academic text (2015) -
Thrawn had proved time and again that he knew what he was doing.
Fiction book (1991) -
Training has proven time and again to be the most cost-effective solution to most common interoperability problems.
Academic text (2011) -
And time and again Japan has come out with great strength, has done more than most other countries in learning from the disasters that they've had to live through.
-
REPORTER 4: Time and again, these museums were robbed of untold riches.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Happens many times
∞
1.0
Happens without stopping
556
1.0
Many times in a row
476
1.0
Happening many times in a short time
386
1.0
Often at the same or fixed times
382
1.0
It happens again and again
268
1.0
Happens many times
255
1.0
Many times on different occasions
139
2.9
Happening again and again over time, often with short breaks
98
4.9
Happens many times, usually within a short time
91
2.3
Happens often at set times
73
1.8
Very often on many occasions
38
3.5
Again and again in every situation
12
9.9
On many occasions
6
2.6
It happens often
6
2.0
In almost all cases
3
3.5
Again and again in the same way, often causing boredom or annoyance
1
6.3
A very large number of times that are hard to count
1
4.3
Happens again and again at regular times
On many occasions
At all times
Antonyms
How Often
740
1.0
- Informal
47
1.8
476
1.0
∞
1.0
∞
1.0
438
2.0
539
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'very often; repeatedly' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'time' (an occasion) with 'again' (once more), so the phrase signals repeated occasions. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g. 'una y otra vez' in Spanish), making it readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the parts.
Etymology
Time and again gives a clear image: time passes and the same thing happens again and again. That's why it means 'very often' or 'repeatedly'.