Word.ws English Dictionary

much

/mʌt͡ʃ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/mʊt͡ʃ/

much determiner: a large amount of.

Determiner

much (comparative more, superlative most)

  1. A large amount of.
    • Do you think I have much chance of catching the train on time?
    • After much discussion, we decided to set about the task with much enthusiasm.
  2. ('this much') Used to indicate, demonstrate or compare the quantity of something.
    • Add this much water and no more.
    • Take as much time as you like.
  3. (archaic, nonstandard) A great number of; many (people).
    • ye shall not nede to seke hym soo ferre sayd the Kynge / for as I here saye sir Launcelot will abyde me and yow in the Ioyous gard / and moche peple draweth vnto hym as I here saye1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter X, in Le Morte Darthur, book XX
    • When Jesus was come downe from the mountayne, moch people folowed him.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew
  4. (Caribbean, UK, regional, African-American) many ( + plural countable noun).
    • They got so much things to say right now, they got so much things to say.1977, Bob Marley, “So Much Things to Say”

Adjective

much (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Large, great.
    • Thenne launcelot vnbarred the dore / and with his lyfte hand he held it open a lytel / so that but one man myghte come in attones / and soo there came strydyng a good knyghte a moche man and large / and his name was Colgreuaunce / of Gore / and he with a swerd strake at syr launcelot myȝtely and he...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “iiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XX
  2. (obsolete) Long in duration.

Adverb

much (comparative more, superlative most)

  1. To a great extent.
    • I don't like melon much, and I don’t much care for milk chocolate either: I find them both much too sweet.
    • However much I eat, I never get fat.
    1. for emphasis or to indicate a great difference
      • He is much fatter than I remember him.
      • Honestly, I can't stand much more of this.
  2. Often; frequently.
    • Does he get drunk much?
  3. ('this much') Used to indicate or compare extent.
    • I don't like Wagner as much as I like Mozart.
  4. (slang) Combining with an adjective or (occasionally) a noun, used in a rhetorical question to mock someone for having the specified quality.
    • Jamie's always preaching about how we need to save a planet when she drives literally everywhere she goes. Like, hypocritical much?
    • The moment you've been waiting for—the lowdown on the Overstock hottie. I talked to her by phone last week. (Jealous much, gentlemen? Ad Report Card talks to all the fine ladies.)2005 December 28, Seth Stevenson, “What’s With That Overstock.com Ad?”, in Slate, New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2024
  5. (obsolete) Almost.

Pronoun

much

  1. A large amount or great extent; a lot.
    • I don't have much to do.
    • From those to whom much has been given much is expected.

Proper noun capitalized: Much

Much (plural Muches)

  1. A surname from German.

much meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

much in Hindi

a large amount of
अधिक adhik, बहुत bahut

much in Tamil

a large amount of
நிறைய niṟaiya

much in Urdu

a large amount of
بہت bahut

much in Bengali

a large amount of
অনেক onek, বহু bohu
More languagesFewer languages
much in Sanskrit
बहु bahu, अधिकम् adhikam
much in Sinhala
බොහෝ bohō
much in Pashto
ډېر ḍer
much in Arabic
كَثِير kaṯīr, كَثِيرًا kaṯīran
much in Malay
banyak
much in Indonesian
banyak
much in Persian
بسیار besiyâr
much in Thai
มาก mâak, หลาย lǎai
much in Vietnamese
nhiều
much in Myanmar
များ mya:

Examples of much in a sentence

  • Did you do much running last summer?
  • He left her, much to the satisfaction of her other suitor.
  • That boyfriend of yours is much like the others.
  • My English was much the worst, and I'm certainly not much good at math either, of that I'm very much aware.
  • Both candidates, who are much of an age, say much the same thing, but the youngest shows much the commoner behavior of the two.
  • a much warmer room for much nicer people

All 40 example sentences with much

Synonyms of much

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of much

Forms of much

Determiner
comparativemore
superlativemost
Adverb
comparativemore
superlativemost
Proper noun
pluralMuches

Origin of much

From Middle English muche (“much, great”), apocopated variant of muchel (“much, great”), from Old English myċel, miċel (“big, much”), from Proto-West Germanic *mikil, from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂- (“big, stour, great”). See also mickle, muckle. Cognates Cognate with Scots mickle, mukill, mekil, mikil (“big, large, great, much”), Middle Dutch mēkel (“great, many, much”), Middle High German michel ("great, many, much"; > German michel (“great, big, large”)), Norwegian Bokmål mye (“much”), Norwegian Nynorsk mykje (“much”), Swedish mycket (“much”), Danish meget (“much”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌺𐌹𐌻𐍃 (mikils, “great, many”), Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas, “large, great”), Modern Greek μεγάλος (megálos, “large, great”). Note that English much is not related to Spanish mucho, and their resemblance in both form and meaning is purely coincidental, as mucho derives from Latin multus and is not related to the Germanic forms. Instead, related to Spanish maño.

Two main origins: * Borrowed from German Much. * A variant of Mutch.

Words formed from much

Phrases with much

28 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about much

What does much mean?
Much means a large amount of.
What is much in Hindi?
Much in Hindi is अधिक (adhik), बहुत (bahut). See Much meaning in Hindi.
How do you use much in a sentence?
Did you do much running last summer?
What part of speech is much?
Much can be a determiner, an adjective, an adverb or a pronoun.
How do you pronounce much?
Much is pronounced /mʌt͡ʃ/ (UK).

Words near much in the dictionary

  1. muce
  2. mucedin
  3. mucedinous
  4. mucedins
  5. muces
  6. much
  7. much ado about nothing
  8. much adoe about nothing
  9. much appreciated
  10. much as
  11. Much Birch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: much (page history and authors); Much (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-much.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-much.wav.

Cite this entry: “much.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/much. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.