more often than not
Usually; more than half the time; more likely to be the case than not to be the case.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“More often than not, I walk to work instead of driving.”
“She's not perfect, but more often than not, her advice turns out to be exactly what I need.”
“Though the city had its share of rainy days, the mornings broke clear and warm more often than not, as if the weather itself conspired to lift the spirits of its weary inhabitants.”
The origin of the phrase is obscure. It is generally understood as an ellipsis of the longer construction *more often than not so*, likely arriving by way of a simple grammatical shortening.
An alternative, if unproven, theory suggests the phrase may have occasionally been understood as *more often than zero*. This involves the terms *nought* and *naught*, specifically in the context of scales or gauges where the zero mark represented the midpoint of measurement or frequency. Whether the phrase traces its lineage to an elliptical sentence or a physical instrument remains a matter of some uncertainty.
Last updated August 10, 2026