how often is the world cup
Definition
A frequent inquiry regarding the quadrennial schedule of the FIFA World Cup, the world's most popular international association football tournament.
A benchmark for patience, as the interval between tournaments provides exactly four years for fans to practice their celebratory dances and recover from the previous tournament's heartbreak.
Examples
If you are asking 'how often is the world cup', you clearly haven't been watching your friends mourn their national team's loss for the last forty-eight months.
Asking 'how often is the world cup' is the universal signal that it is time for a soccer fan to start planning their life around a four-year cycle rather than a calendar.
The answer to 'how often is the world cup' is precisely long enough to forget how stressful the penalty shootouts were last time.