Library / English Dictionary

PERIODICALLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a sporadic manner

Example:

he only works sporadically

Synonyms:

periodically; sporadically

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

periodical (happening or recurring at regular intervals)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The astronomers knew the planet was there due to dips in the light from its host star as it orbited, periodically blocking starlight.

(Mercury Not as Rare as Previously Thought, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Periodically stopping and starting.

(Intermittent, NCI Thesaurus)

A near-Earth asteroid is defined as one whose orbit periodically brings it within approximately 1.3 times Earth's average distance to the sun — that is within 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) — of the sun (Earth's average distance to the sun is about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers).

(Catalog of Known Near-Earth Asteroids Tops 15,000, NASA)

An astronomer proposed 23 years ago that a red dwarf star 1.5 light-years away could periodically travel through the icy outer limits of our Solar System, stirring up material with its gravity, knocking a few more space boulders our way.

(Our Sun Could Have Been Born With an Evil Twin Called "Nemesis", The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It was on one of these days, when my cottagers periodically rested from labour—the old man played on his guitar, and the children listened to him—that I observed the countenance of Felix was melancholy beyond expression; he sighed frequently, and once his father paused in his music, and I conjectured by his manner that he inquired the cause of his son’s sorrow.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The periodically repeated leucine side chains extending from one alpha helix interdigitate with leucine residues of another alpha helix, facilitating coiled-coil dimerization; like charge repulsion in this region perturbs homodimer formation; heterodimers are promoted by opposing charge attractions. c-MYC transcription factor binds to CAC(GA)TG DNA sites.

(MYC Family Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

It was in a way akin to that common habit of men and women troubled by real or fancied grievances, who periodically and volubly break their long-suffering silence and have their say till the last word is said.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)