# few and far between

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/few-and-far-between
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

Rare and scarce; hard to find.

## Examples

- Good jobs in this small town are few and far between.
- Opportunities to travel abroad for work are few and far between, so she applied immediately.
- Sunny days are few and far between during the winter months, so people try to spend every possible moment outside when the clouds finally clear.
- In the desolate landscape, signs of human life were few and far between, leaving the travelers feeling truly isolated.

## Origin

Attested at least since the 17th century, the phrase originally served a literal, spatial function. It was reserved for the description of physical objects, such as houses, which appeared with significant geographic intervals between them. The construction functioned as a commentary on the architecture of the landscape rather than the frequency of events. In contemporary usage, the term has migrated from the physical to the abstract. The implication of rarity remains tethered to the original spatial logic: for a thing to be rare, the average gaps between its occurrences must be wide. The distance between houses has become the distance between opportunities.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.