Origin: Latin suffix -al
Occasional has 6 different meanings across 1 category:
A person who does something only occasionally.
"He is an occasional visitor to my home, appearing perhaps once a month without any fixed schedule."
In plain English: An occasional is someone who only does something from time to time instead of all the time.
"The occasional visitor dropped by to say hello but rarely stayed long."
occurring or appearing at usually irregular intervals
"episodic in his affections"
"occasional headaches"
occurring on a temporary or irregular basis
"casual employment"
"a casual correspondence with a former teacher"
"an occasional worker"
Occurring or appearing irregularly from time to time, but not often.
"The stray cat visited our neighborhood on an occasional basis, usually just once a week after sunset."
In plain English: Occasional means something that happens only sometimes rather than all the time.
"We have an occasional coffee together on Sundays."
Usage: Use occasional as an adjective to describe events that happen infrequently rather than regularly. Do not confuse this with "occurring," which is a verb form; instead, pair it directly with nouns like "occasional visitor."
The word occasional comes from the phrase meaning "pertaining to an opportunity" in medieval languages before entering English. It was formed by combining the root for chance or event with a suffix that creates adjectives describing something related to those moments.