Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Amounting to or consisting of a large indefinite number.
  • adjective Being one of a large indefinite number; numerous.
  • noun The majority of the people; the masses.
  • noun A large indefinite number.
  • pronoun A large number of persons or things.
  • idiom (as many) The same number of.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See meiny.
  • noun A multitude; a great aggregate; specifically, the mass of people; the generality; the common herd.
  • noun A considerable number: with the indefinite article, and followed by of expressed or understood.
  • noun [The phrase a many (as well as a pretty many) is now rare or colloquial; yet a good many and a great many are still in common use.]
  • Being or consisting of a large number of units or individuals; numerous: often used alone, the noun being understood. See many, n.
  • Being one of a large number; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind: followed by a, an, or another, used distributively. The phrase many a one, so used, was formerly many one without the article.
  • Being of a certain number, large or small; plural (especially in the phrase the many as opposed to the one): after a term of qualification (as, so, too, and especially how in interrogations): often with the qualified noun omitted: as, how many people were there? how many will go? as many as the room will hold; not so many as before; too many men are dishonest.
  • Much.
  • Such a number indefinitely or distributively: as, he took so many of these, and so many of those, and so many of the others.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The populace; the common people; the majority of people, or of a community.
  • noun A large or considerable number.
  • adjective Consisting of a great number; numerous; not few.
  • adjective a large number taken distributively; each one of many.
  • adjective many a one; many persons.
  • adjective the majority; -- opposed to the few. See Many, n.
  • adjective too numerous; hence, too powerful.
  • noun obsolete A retinue of servants; a household.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • determiner An indefinite large number of.
  • pronoun A collective mass of people.
  • pronoun An indefinite large number of people or things.
  • noun A multitude; a great aggregate; a mass of people; the generality; the common herd.
  • noun A considerable number.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by `as' or `too' or `so' or `that'; amounting to a large but indefinite number

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English manig; see menegh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English manye, *menye, from Old English manigeo, menigu ("company, multitude, host"), from Proto-Germanic *managō, *managīn (“multitude”). Cognate with Middle Low German menige, menie, menje ("multitude").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English many, mani, moni, from Old English maniġ, moniġ, maneġ ("many"), from Proto-Germanic *managaz (“some, much, many”), from Proto-Indo-European *monogʰo- (“many”).

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Examples

  • Too many people are greedy with this space..many times I've arrived at my seat and found no room for my own shopping bag or cabin bag in the old fashion sense of the 60's..

    The Teaser 2010

  • Sony does have higher prices many/most times..but if you use inkmesh and narrow down to epub by selecting Sony Reader on the left side..many times Sony's prices are right there with everyone else.

    Sony Daily Edition (PRS 900) Review Jeff C 2010

  • Acknowledging the necessity to work with others; getting the guts to ask for help in order to preclude slamming one's head against the wall for extended amounts of time; finding two, three or even more ways to tackle a problem, whether it be literally in homework or otherwise in managing life and time; learning many, _many_ subtle things that you certainly won't regret learning as you tackle challenges in the future.

    Failing Students Luis von Ahn 2009

  • Like Brian said, he falls right in there with many of the greats Bill Tucci, Joe Jusko, EBAS, …..many more with his awesome, yet humble attitude.

    Interview: Al Rio | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009

  • Re the maggot story: many *many* adjectives spring to mind, but I'm going to go with "resourceful"...

    Boy, do I feel stupid. Angry Professor 2009

  • Seems like many *many* people who come for the party decide to crash on the floor afterwards.

    political crosstitch pieces! (update post 3!) amy 2008

  • An essential argument to have a truly free market is there are many customers who can choose between many goods from *many* competing sellers.

    Mouse Print»Blog Archive » Ace Ticket: “Great” Prices for Red Sox Tickets? 2007

  • Motherships..sheesh, at least people here use facts,,I have shown you many false prophecies by many ‘nutbags’..many of them like Robertson, Falwell, Rushdoonie, Hagee and their Iraq war for Jesus end times insanity and I posted them because I do NOT run my life by them and people should not listen to Hagee and these other War, death and blodd for the return of Jesus ‘nutbags’

    Think Progress » EMAILS: Bush Officials Blocked Scientist From Discussing Global Warming/Hurricane Link 2006

  • Thottbot at least has the potential to be a truly comprehensive data source for that kind of analysis, in fact now that I think of it I find myself wishing something like this had existed for Camelot, it would have saved me many, *many* hours of gathering data on how the combat system was actually performing which was very different from how the programmers thought it worked.

    Automated Expertise Management 2005

  • You remember when I asked you five times ... maybe six  times, if you would tell me a number; how many victims ... how many  people.

    TEDBUNDY Michaud, S G & Aynesworth H 1989

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