MANY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Many

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/mˈɛni/ Listen

adjective

Many adj., pron. (It has no variation to express degrees of comparison; more and most, which are used for the comparative and superlative degrees, are from a different root) Consisting of a great number; numerous; not few. "Thou shalt be a father of many nations." "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." Note: Many is freely prefixed to participles, forming compounds which need no special explanation; as, many-angled, many-celled, many-eyed, many-footed, many-handed, many-leaved, many-lettered, many-named, many-peopled, many-petaled, many-seeded, many-syllabled (polysyllabic), many-tongued, many-voiced, many-wived, and the like. In such usage it is equivalent to multi. Comparison is often expressed by many with as or so. "As many as were willing hearted... brought bracelets." "So many laws argue so many sins." Many stands with a singular substantive with a or an.

Many a, a large number taken distributively; each one of many. "For thy sake have I shed many a tear." "Full many a gem of purest ray serene."

Many one, many a one; many persons.

The many, the majority; opposed to the few. See Many, n.

Too many, too numerous; hence, too powerful; as, they are too many for us.

Synonyms: Numerous; multiplied; frequent; manifold; various; divers; sundry.

noun

Many n. A retinue of servants; a household. (Obs.)

Many n.

The populace; the common people; the majority of people, or of a community. "After him the rascal many ran."

A large or considerable number. "A many of our bodies shall no doubt Find native graves." "Seeing a great many in rich gowns." "It will be concluded by many that he lived like an honest man." Note: In this sense, many is connected immediately with another substantive (without of) to show of what the many consists; as, a good many (of) people think so. "He is liable to a great many inconveniences."

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Etymology of 'Many'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Many" Quotes from Famous Books

... sculptor of the Venus de Medici is not known; and the Apollo Belvedere is a masterpiece, the author of which lies shrouded in the depths of the past. Rude and harsh were the early performances of the Greeks. We have histories of Greek sculptors who flourished many hundred years before our era; and of these the mythical Daedalus is the oldest and most renowned. This sculptor is reported to have flourished fourteen centuries before the Christian era. He is said to have fashioned colossal wooden statues; and Pausanias mentions his statue of Hercules in the ...

— How to See the British Museum in Four Visits • W. Blanchard Jerrold

... not a lover's only, that I will be to you father, mother, sister, brother—ay, a whole family—anything or nothing, as you may decree? And is it not your own wish which has confined within the compass of a lover's feeling so many varying forms of devotion? Pardon me, then, if at times the father and brother disappear behind the lover, since you know they are none the less there, though screened from view. Would that you could read the feelings ...

— Letters of Two Brides • Honore de Balzac

... called that papa suggests sickness as a possible cause. I do hope that this is not what has kept you away. I confess that I have missed you very much. I have so enjoyed our conversations. You are not like the fashionable butterflies of whom we meet so many in society. One must tolerate them, of course but it is a comfort to meet a man who can talk intelligently about books and art. Apropos, I have a new collection of etchings that I want to show you. Won't you name an evening when you will ...

— The Erie Train Boy • Horatio Alger

... like Martin R. Delaney, who had at first fearlessly opposed the colonization of the blacks in Africa, began during the fifties to promote the emigration of the free people of color to other parts. Many of this persuasion went to Canada West and some ...

— The Journal of Negro History, Vol. I. Jan. 1916 • Various

... tormented anxiety to destroy Germany we see her dread for the future—more indeed than mere hatred. To occupy with numerous troops the left bank of the Rhine and the bridgeheads is an act of vengeance; but in the vengeance there is also anxiety. There are many in France who think that neither now nor after fifteen years must the territory of the vanquished be abandoned. And so France maintains in effective force too large an army and nourishes too great a rancour. And for this reason she helps the Poles in their unjustifiable attempt in ...

— Peaceless Europe • Francesco Saverio Nitti

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