much
Americanadjective
noun
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a great quantity, measure, or degree.
Much of his research was unreliable.
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a great, important, or notable thing or matter.
The house is not much to look at.
adverb
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to a great extent or degree; greatly; far.
to talk too much; much heavier.
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nearly, approximately, or about.
This is much like the others.
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Slang. (used after an adjective, noun, or verb to form a question that comments on someone’s intense feelings or extreme actions in a way that is critical, sarcastic, teasing, etc.): Geeking out much?
Jealous much?
Geeking out much?
idioms
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not so much, not.
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much as,
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almost the same as.
We need exercise, much as we need nourishment.
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however much.
Much as she wanted to stay at the party, she had to leave.
-
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too much,
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His band is too much, especially live in concert.
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overwhelming or intolerable.
His memories of the life they had together were just too much.
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She's too much—but so hilarious!
-
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make much of,
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to treat, represent, or consider as of great importance.
to make much of trivial matters.
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to treat with great consideration; show fondness for; flatter.
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determiner
-
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(usually used with a negative) a great quantity or degree of
there isn't much honey left
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( as pronoun )
much has been learned from this
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informal rather excessive
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exactly that
I suspected as much when I heard
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See make of
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not to any appreciable degree or extent
he's not much of an actor really
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informal of a low standard
this beer is not up to much
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(used with a negative) to have a high opinion of
I don't think much of his behaviour
adverb
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considerably
they're much better now
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practically; nearly (esp in the phrase much the same )
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(usually used with a negative) often; a great deal
it doesn't happen much in this country
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even though; although
much as I'd like to, I can't come
adjective
Etymology
Origin of much
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English muche, moche, shortened variant of muchel, mochel, Old English mycel; replacing Middle English miche(l), Old English micel “great, much” ( cf. mickle), cognate with Old Norse mikill, Gothic mikils, Greek mégal-, expanded stem of mégas “great”
Explanation
Use the adjective much to mean "a lot" or "a large amount." If you don't get much sleep the night before a big test, you don't get a lot. If you get too much sleep, you may sleep through your alarm and miss the test. Much is used as an adjective or adverb, but it always means a large quantity, extent, or degree. When something hurts very much, it's very painful, and when your friend says your gift is very much appreciated, she's emphasizing how happy it made her. The Middle English version of this word was muchel, "large," from the Old English micel, "great in amount or extent."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Americans eat twice as much chicken today as they did in the 1970s, and fast-food places focusing specifically on chicken began swallowing truly staggering amounts of market share.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Like so much in the semiconductor space, the Samsung news was not negative, but just didn’t live up to expectations given its stock has surged 114% this year and 259% over the last 52 weeks.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
The Korean company’s plan to buy back as much as $78.88 billion of shares comes as chip makers reap the rewards of the artificial-intelligence boom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
"And the second point is, my credibility is much, much higher if I'm not interested in the position."
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
I’ve never been in this much trouble before, and were this any other day, I would be terrified.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
The more I looked into the cult of Cane’s, the more I understood how the country’s most obsessed-over digit-shaped delicacy took America by storm, slowly and then all at once.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
The latest twist in what has, certainly of late, been a rollercoaster ride between Jean-Philippe Mateta and Crystal Palace has once more thrown the striker's future at the club under scrutiny.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
SpaceX, trading at 93 times next year’s estimated earnings, seems hardly the stock to unite both short-term-focused hedge-fund managers and more long-term-oriented mutual-fund managers.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
Palm-oil exports point in the opposite direction, with Indonesia reporting $17.7 billion more than its partners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
He lies down on his own bed so Dr. Harlow can shave his head and examine the wound more closely.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
The more I looked into the cult of Cane’s, the more I understood how the country’s most obsessed-over digit-shaped delicacy took America by storm, slowly and then all at once.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
The area is one of the most deprived in a country where the UN says three in four people cannot provide for their basic needs.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
In an important week for AI, investors are also looking towards an earnings report from Nvidia, the world's most valuable company and a bellwether for the sector.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
For most of the decade after Warsh left the Fed, inflation ran below where officials expected, not above.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
The country is comprised of more than seven thousand islands, most of which are smaller than one square mile.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
