From Middle English oft (also ofte, often > Modern English often), from Old English oft, from Proto-West Germanic *oftu, *oftō, from Proto-Germanic *uftō.

• (America) IPA: /ɔft/, enPR: ôft
• (cot-caught) IPA: /ɑft/, enPR: ŏft
• (RP) IPA: /ɒft/, enPR: ŏft

oft (comparative ofter, superlative oftest)

1. (chiefly, poetic, dialectal, and in combination) often; frequently; not rarely

   An oft-told tale

   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All's Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     What I can do, can do no hurt to try:
     Since you ſet up your reſt 'gainſt remedy:
     He that of greateſt works is finiſher,
     Oft does them by the weakeſt miniſter;
     So holy writ in babes hath judgment ſhown,
     When judges have been babes.

   • 1819, George Gordon Byron, John Galt (biography), The Pophecy of Dante, Canto the Fourth, 1857, The Complete Works of Lord Byron, Volume 1, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=cqNOAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA403&dq=%22And+how+is+it+that+they,+the+sons+of+fame%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nJ9rUbW4ENCaiAfM5YDwCQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22And%20how%20is%20it%20that%20they%2C%20the%20sons%20of%20fame%22&f=false page 403],

     And how is it that they, the sons of fame,
     Whose inspiration seems to them to shine
     From high, they whom the nations oftest name,
     Must pass their days in penury or pain,
     Or step to grandeur through the paths of shame,
     And wear a deeper brand and gaudier chain?

   • 1902, James H. Mulligan, In Kentucky, quoted in 2005, Wade Hall (editor), The Kentucky Anthology, page 203 ↗,

     The moonlight falls the softest
     In Kentucky;
     The summer days come oftest
     In Kentucky;

• often

• French: souvent
• Russian: часто

1. (UK) Initialism of Office of Fair Trading

oft (plural ofts)

1. Initialism of orbital flight test

   Synonyms: OTF

   Coordinate terms: IFT, FTA, FT, TF, TFA