Word.ws English Dictionary

much of a muchness

much of a muchness phrase: of two or more things, having little difference of any significance between them.

Phrase

much of a muchness

  1. (idiomatic) Of two or more things, having little difference of any significance between them.
    • As to any existing dearth of materials for comedy, I hold it to be merely imaginary; for I believe that on a fair comparison, the manners and morals of the present age and those of the past, would prove much of a muchness.1819, The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Etc, page 683
    • “He was not,” answered a juror. “Old Peter Goodwin could not have been more than five feet five, and Dorothy was all of that, I should think. When they came to meeting together, they looked much of a muchness.”1850, James Fenimore Cooper, “The Ways of the Hour”, in Precaution / The Ways of the Hour, facsimile edition, published 2010, page 30

Examples of much of a muchness in a sentence

  • Women are very much of a muchness, especially the pretty ones.1906, William Somerset Maugham, The Bishop's Apron: A Study in the Origins of a Great Family, page 172:
  • Private houses in London are apt to be much of a muchness.c. 1931, Virginia Woolf, “Portrait of a Londoner”, in The London Scene, published 2004, page 75:
  • The songs are much of a muchness (or littleness), all sounding forgettably alike.1987 March 30, John Simon, “Theater: Railway Disaster”, in New York, page 97:
  • There are small trees and large shrubs which are much of a muchness, and it may not be possible to say whether an individual plant is a tall member of the shrub layer or a short tree.2000, Patrick Whitefield, How To Make A Forest Garden, Permanent Publications, UK, page 13

Questions about much of a muchness

What does much of a muchness mean?
Much of a muchness means of two or more things, having little difference of any significance between them.
How do you use much of a muchness in a sentence?
Women are very much of a muchness, especially the pretty ones.
What part of speech is much of a muchness?
Much of a muchness is a phrase.

Words near much of a muchness in the dictionary

  1. Much Hoole
  2. much less
  3. Much Marcle
  4. much needed
  5. much obliged
  6. much of a muchness
  7. much scribbling
  8. much to be said
  9. much too
  10. Much Wenlock
  11. much what

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: much of a muchness (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-au-much of a muchness.ogg.

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