many
/ˈmɛni/ determiner, pronoun, noun, adjective, proper noun
Forms more most manies Manys manie
- determiner before a countable noun: A large, indefinite number of. “Not many such people enjoyed playing chess.”
- determiner before a countable noun: (in combinations such as 'as many', 'so many', 'this many') Used to indicate, demonstrate or compare the number of people or things. “We don't need this many bananas. Put some back.”
- pronoun A large, indefinite number of people or things. “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
- noun A multitude; a great aggregate; a mass of people; the generality; the common herd. “Democracy must balance the rights of the few against the will of the many.”
- noun A considerable number.
- adjective Existing in large number; numerous. “I was among the many visitors to that town.”
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A town, the parish seat of Sabine Parish, Louisiana, United States.
Synonyms
numerous a lot of crowd mob canaille commonality commonalty commonage demos everyone general public great unhosed great unwashed herd hoi polloi lower class masses multitude odds and sods peasantry
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English many, mani, moni, from Old English maniġ, moniġ, maneġ (“many”), from Proto-West Germanic *manag, from Proto-Germanic *managaz (“many; much”), from Proto-Indo-European *menegʰ-, *mengʰ- (“many, sufficient”) or Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂- (“big, great”).
Cognate with Scots mony (“many”), Yola many (“many”), North Frisian manag, manig, mäning (“many”), Alemannic German meng (“many”), Central Franconian mannich, männich (“many”), Dutch menig (“many”), German manch (“many, some”), Low German männich, männig (“many”), Luxembourgish muench, munch, munnech (“many”), Danish mangen (“many”), Faroese mangur (“many”), Icelandic margur (“many”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk mang, mange (“many”), Swedish mången (“many”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐍃 (manags, “many; much”), French maint (“many”); also Cornish menowgh (“frequent, often”), Irish minic (“frequently, often”), Manx mennick (“frequent, often”), Scottish Gaelic minig (“frequent”), Welsh mynych (“frequent, often”), Belarusian мно́га (mnóha, “many; much”), Bulgarian and Russian мно́го (mnógo, “many; much”), Czech mnohý (“many, numerous”), Macedonian мно́гу (mnógu, “very; many; much”), Polish mnogi (“numerous; plural”), Serbo-Croatian мно̏гӣ, mnȍgī (“many; much, long; large, numerous”), Ukrainian мно́гий (mnóhyj, “many, multiple”).
The noun is from Middle English manye, *menye, from Old English manigeo, menigu (“company, multitude, host”), from Proto-West Germanic *managu, *managī, from Proto-Germanic *managō, *managį̄ (“multitude”), from the same root as the determiner. Cognate with Middle Low German menige, menie, menje (“multitude”), Russian много (mnogo), Serbo-Croatian mnogo.
Borrowed from French Many or a variant of Maney. The town in Louisiana is named after a Colonel Many.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A retinue of servants; a household. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- adjective Consisting of a great number; numerous; not few. Thou shalt be a father of many nations. Gen. xvii. 4.
- noun The populace; the common people; the majority of people, or of a community.
- noun A large or considerable number.
Etymology [See Meine, Mansion.]
Etymology [OE. mani, moni, AS. manig, mænig, monig; akin to D. menig, OS. & OHG. manag, G. manch, Dan. mange, Sw. månge, Goth. manags, OSlav. mnog', Russ. mnogii; cf. Icel. margr, Prov. E. mort. sq. root103.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “many”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details