- used with uncountable nouns, especially in negative sentences to mean ‘a large amount of something’, or after ‘how’ to ask about the amount of something. It is also used with ‘as’, ‘so’ and ‘too’.
- I don't have much money with me.
- ‘Got any money?’ ‘Not much.’
- How much water do you need?
- How much is it (= What does it cost)?
- Take as much time as you like.
- There was so much traffic that we were an hour late.
- I've got far too much to do.
- (formal) I lay awake for much of the night.
- (formal) There was much discussion about the reasons for the failure.
Grammar Point much / a lot of / lots ofmuch / a lot of / lots of- Much is used only with uncountable nouns. It is used mainly in questions and negative sentences:
- Do you have much free time?
- How much experience have you had?
- I don’t have much free time.
- In statements a lot of or lots of (informal) is much more common:
- How much (money) does she earn?
- She earns a lot of money.
- A lot of/lots of is still felt to be informal, especially in British English, so in formal writing it is better to use much, a great deal of or a large amount of.
- Very much and a lot can be used as adverbs:
- I miss my family very much.
- I miss very much my family.
- I miss my family a lot.
- Thanks a lot.
- I didn’t enjoy the film (very) much.
Word OriginMiddle English: shortened from muchel, from Old English micel ‘great, numerous, much’, of Germanic origin; from an Indo-European root shared by Greek megas, megal-.
Idioms
See much in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee much in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishas much
- the same
- Please help me get this job—you know I would do as much for you.
- ‘Roger stole the money.’ ‘I thought as much.’
as much as somebody can do
- used to say that something is difficult to do
- No dessert for me, thanks. It was as much as I could do to finish the main course.
a bit much
- (informal) not fair or not reasonable
- It's a bit much calling me at three in the morning.
- The noise from next door is getting a bit much.
make much of something/somebody
- to treat something/somebody as very important
- He always makes much of his humble origins.
not much in it
- used to say that there is little difference between two things
- I won, but there wasn't much in it (= our scores were nearly the same).
not much of a…
- not a good…
- He's not much of a tennis player.
this much
- used to introduce something positive or definite
- I'll say this much for him—he never leaves a piece of work unfinished.
too much
- a situation or experience that is too difficult to deal with
- It all proved too much for him.
Check pronunciation:
much