Does Oftentimes Need a Hyphen?

You might notice that in each of the sentences above, often can be substituted for oftentimes without changing the meaning of the sentence. Often also has the variants oft and ofttimes. Oft often appears in hyphenated phrasal adjectives, like oft-repeated or oft-quoted, but should be avoided in other situations.

Is oftentimes a preposition?

Something that happens oftentimes happens a lot (though maybe not all the time). Oftentimes is an adverb, meaning it's typically used to describe verbs. It's oftentimes associated with habitual actions. A less common variant of oftentimes is ofttimes.

How do you use oftentimes in a sentence?