periodically

adverbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,197 of 15,258leans written

Periodically means at regular intervals. Checked periodically, periodically reviewed, flooding periodically.

It claims regularity, which is why it appears in maintenance schedules and policy documents. In loose speech it drifts towards occasionally, which is not the same thing and blurs a useful word.

Definitions of periodically

1adverbperiodicallyAt regular intervals.B2+
“The nurse came in periodically to check his temperature.”

periodically is a manner.

Where it comes from

Ancient Greek
περίοδος — cycle, period of time
Latin
periodus — complete sentence, period, circuit
Medieval Latin
periodicus — cyclical
French
périodique
English
periodic
English, today
periodically

From periodic + -ally. periodic comes from French périodique, from Medieval Latin periodicus (“cyclical”), from Latin periodus (“complete sentence, period, circuit”), from Ancient Greek περίοδος (“cycle, period of time”). by surface analysis, period + -ic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

periodically in the wild

Calving of Denman Glacier into the Mawson Sea gives rise to the periodically appearing Pobeda Ice Island.
Denman Glacier
The meat is left to cook, then periodically coated with the juice.
Basting (cooking)
The database is periodically updated, and contains more than 320,000 entries as of October 2020.
Base Mérimée
The collection of the museum consists of 300 cars of which about 110 are displayed periodically.
Hellenic Motor Museum
Several different groups have demonstrated matter with stable periodic evolution in systems that are periodically driven.
Time crystal

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the periodus family

period

periodically — used about once every 5,793 pages · #10,197 · point at the bar for the others

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