Rarely or seldom, what's the difference?

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In my opinion, 'seldom' is rarely used in informal speech or writing, while 'rarely' is seldom replaced by other words.

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"Seldom" is from Old English (compare to High German "selten"). "Rarely" is from French / Latin (compare French "rarement"). They both mean the same thing, but in conversation we usually just say "not often", for example: "He doesn't study too often."

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While both can be interchangeable, I believe a lot of people will say "rarely" means lesser in frequency than "seldom"

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Same. Not happening very often. Context might help.

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They are interchangeable I think.  Maybe someone can come up with a counterexample.  "Rarely" may be stronger than "seldom", ie, it may connote an occurrence of lower frequency.

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