Much

How to spell much

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce much

What does much mean?

1. determinerA large quantity or amount of something.
2. adverbTo a great extent or degree.

Much in a sentence

• determiner

  There was not much food left after the party.

• adverb

  The new office is much quieter than the old one.

• determiner

  Too much sugar in the coffee spoiled the taste.

• adverb

  He enjoyed the film very much indeed.

Where does much come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Much descends from the Old English word mycel, also spelled micel, which meant 'great in size or amount'. That root traces back to a Proto-Germanic source and ultimately to an ancient Indo-European root meaning 'big', the same root that gave Greek megas 'great' and Latin magnus 'large'. Over the medieval centuries the long Old English form was steadily worn down: mycel became muchel and then simply much, losing its final syllable much as 'such' shrank from the older swilc. By the time of Middle English the modern sense had settled on 'a large quantity or degree', and the word had become one of the most common quantity words in the language. Its plain four-letter spelling hides this surprisingly grand ancestry among words like 'magnitude' and 'mega'.

How the word is built

• much (from Old English mycel: great, large)