many
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many¹
- /ˈmɛni/ UK
- /ˈmɛni/ US
- /ˈmɪni/ pin pen merger
- /ˈmæni/ Ireland
Sounds like mini (pin–pen merger), mannie, Mannie, manny, Manny · Rhymes with -ɛni, -æni
Where it comes from
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”).
Cognates
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.
determiner more · most · manie
-
before a countable noun: A large, indefinite number of.
Not many such people enjoyed playing chess.
Similar: numerous · Opposite: a couple of, a few, a handful of, several, one, no, zero
- 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 manie
- A large, indefinite number of people or things. Many are called, but few are chosen.
Opposite: few
noun manies · manie
-
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.
Similar: crowd, mob, canaille, commonality, commonalty, commonage, demos, everyone, general public, great unhosed, great unwashed, herd
-
A considerable number.
I know that my mother cried a many of times from decisions I made.
Similar: abundance, buttload, deal, battalion, arseload, assload, bellyload, boatload, brimful, busload, bucketful, bucketload
Many²
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French Many or a variant of Maney. The town in Louisiana is named after a Colonel Many.
proper noun Manys
- A surname.
- A town, the parish seat of Sabine Parish, Louisiana, United States.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: numerous, some, galore, many a, many an, many another, umpteen, umteen, amount, additional, even, wide-ranging, widespread, countless, substantial, prevalent
pronoun
Opposite: few
Translations
Every language
det an indefinite large number of
| Español | muchos, muchas |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 많은 maneun |
| 日本語 | 多くの ōkuno, 多い ōi, 沢山 takusan |
| 中文 | 多 duō, 很多 hěnduō, 好多 hǎoduō, 許多 /许多 xǔduō |
| हिन्दी | बहुत bahut, बहु bahu, अधिक adhik, ज़्यादा zyādā |
| Kiswahili | -ingi |
| Português | muitos, muitas |
| Français | beaucoup de, de nombreux, plusieurs |
| Deutsch | viele |
| Italiano | molti, un gran numero di |
| Ελληνικά | πολλοί polloí |
| Română | mulți, multe |
| Русский | мно́го mnógo, мно́гие mnógije, мно́гий mnógij |
| Tiếng Việt | nhiều, lắm |
| العربية | كَثِير kaṯīr |
| עברית | רַבִּים rabim, הַרְבֵּה harbé |
Talk about this word "many." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/many. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. many. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/many "many." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/many.Cite this
@misc{many_2026,
title = {many},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/many},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
